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2004-07-07 China-Japan-Koreas

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Posted by RWV 2004-07-07 12:23:31 PM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Same thing happened in 2001:

Tuesday, June 5, 2001
PRC begins drills around Dongshan Island

Published: June 5, 2001
Source: Taipei Times

ainland China's armed forces have begun a large-scale exercise on an island off Fujian Province, mobilizing approximately 30,000 soldiers, defense sources said Monday.

The exercise - codenamed "Defense of Holy Territory" - is being held on Dongshan Island, which has been the site of several large-scale amphibious landing exercises by the mainland military since 1996.

Intelligence information indicates that the exercise has been held for more than a month on the island and in neighboring areas, although the final stage of the drill - a joint operation by all participating troops - has yet to start.

More than 30,000 soldiers have been mobilized for the exercise, a simulation of a landing attempt from the sea and air against Taiwan.

Soldiers participating in the exercise are elite troops from the People's Liberation Army. They train together as a single army group, whose only mission is to "liberate" Taiwan.

The exercise on Dongshan, which Taiwan's military says is a routine drill, has attracted great attention from the international community. The exercise has prompted the U.S. to send an aircraft carrier battle group toward Taiwan, according to reports.

The USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier was about 650 kilometers from Taiwan's east coast last weekend. But both the U.S. and ROC governments have denied that the carrier was in the neighborhood of Taiwan.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 12:41:40 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-07 12:41:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Think this is a response to Summer Pulse 04?

Hell, let's make them part of it. They can play Red Force to our Blue Force, oh wait, they are Red already.

Posted by Steve 2004-07-07 12:57:56 PM|| 2004-07-07 12:57:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 This is not what I would call a realistic exercise, given that Dongshan Island is actually joined to the mainland by a dyke:

Bachimen, a key junction of Dongshan Island and the mainland, was originally a ferry. In 669, during the Zongzhang Period in the Tang Dynasty, Chen Yuanguang led his army to reclaim South Fujian and brought about the prosperity of Dongshan Island. To honour Chen's merits, people called the ferry "Chen Ping Ferry". In 1664, the third year of Kangxi, the Qing government built here an eight-foot-high wall with a fort, so as to cut the connection of the people in Dongshan with an anti-Qing general Zheng Chenggong. Then, Chen Ping Ferry was changed ito Bachimen. In 1960, the People's Government built a dyke here, joining the island to the mainland and making it a penisula. In 1973, on the dyke was builtthe Xiangdong Aqueduct, leading fresh water into the island. The projects of the dyke and the aqueduct have add to the beauty of the island.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 1:02:17 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-07 1:02:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 If they're gonna practice, they should sink all their ships, landing crafts, subs, just like what'll happen in the real McCoy

Posted by Frank G 2004-07-07 1:03:08 PM|| 2004-07-07 1:03:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 ZF: This is not what I would call a realistic exercise, given that Dongshan Island is actually joined to the mainland by a dyke:

I should have added - whereas Taiwan is separated from the Chinese mainland by 100 miles of open water.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 1:03:45 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-07 1:03:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Meanwhile, the NRO will be staging overflights for accurate intelligence estimates as we fine tune our composition of forces in the field for this event.

China's constant saber rattling is rapidly coming into competition with international terrorism as a source of economic drain upon the world. They have funneled nuclear technology into the cesspools of North Korea and Iran while the free world must try and defuse these dangerous fanatics.

The time has come to arm South Korea, Japan and Taiwan with nuclear weapons in response to China's destabilizing influence. This is one of the few measures that would represent any sort of significant slap-down which the Politburo is in such desperate need of.

Posted by Zenster 2004-07-07 2:00:31 PM|| 2004-07-07 2:00:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Dongshan Island is actually joined to the mainland by a dyke

What's her name?

Posted by mojo 2004-07-07 2:23:08 PM|| 2004-07-07 2:23:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Joined to the mainland by a dyke, huh? Somehow, contemplating this is giving me a bad case of the giggles.... :D

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-07 2:49:45 PM|| 2004-07-07 2:49:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Thanks for the slow-pitch mojo/BAR; Brings a 'hole' new meaning to sticking your finger in a dyke.

(Rimshot!)

Posted by Doc8404 2004-07-07 3:10:49 PM|| 2004-07-07 3:10:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 whereas Taiwan is separated from the Chinese mainland by 100 miles of open water.

Hence a partial explanation of PLA's interest in CVs as mobile airfields (as opposed to deploying aircraft). They've had a landing strip built in a flight-deck configuration for at about a decade.

Posted by Pappy 2004-07-07 3:32:32 PM|| 2004-07-07 3:32:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 I remember the first post I made at RantBurg...
something about a Chineese fire drill.

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-07 3:44:35 PM|| 2004-07-07 3:44:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 It would be very interesting to know how savvy the Chinese high command is about US weaponry and tactics. The Soviets went to lengths to keep their commanders in the dark about this, which resulted in the following story:

Brezhnev went to witness a major naval exercise, the northern fleet capturing a large port. While impressive to look at from the shore, it was hard to tell what had been accomplished. So Brezhnev asked the Admiral commanding the exercise how they had done. "Excellent, we have not lost a single ship," he replied.
Brezhnev then asked him how they had neutralized the enemies' shore batteries.
"The enemy has shore batteries?", he replied.

As ridiculous as it sounds, the Soviet admiralty was generally kept in the dark about ground and air forces disposition and armament. Combined with inter-service rivalry (yes, they have it too), can result in major disconnects.

But does the PLA have this same problem?

Posted by Anonymoose 2004-07-07 6:42:32 PM|| 2004-07-07 6:42:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Anonymoose: It would be very interesting to know how savvy the Chinese high command is about US weaponry and tactics.

My feeling is that they know the broad outlines without knowing the specifics - meaning they know what the sausage looks like, but have no idea how it was made. This may be the reason that Chinese strategic thinkers are always bragging about how they'll annihilate American forces via asymmetric warfare - which in my opinion is a load of wishful thinking dressed up as strategy. Of course, they are not without resources - they may have been spending as much as $20B a year on weapons procurement (compared to $90B a year in the US budget - they may get more bang for their buck because scientists in China cost way less to employ). If they've been spending this much money, odds are they'll have some surprises for us if open conflict does break out. (Of course, we'll also have some surprises for them).

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 6:57:29 PM|| 2004-07-07 6:57:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 THey doing it completely realistically?

Including the effects of Mk48ADCAPs on their transports, Harpoon and Tomahawk impacts on their surface combatants, and stealth bombers dropping PGM onto anything left (and destroying their coastal ports and airfields in range of Taiwan)...

Nah, didnt think so.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-07-07 10:40:41 PM|| 2004-07-07 10:40:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 OS - zactly what I was saying in #4

Posted by Frank G 2004-07-07 10:48:06 PM|| 2004-07-07 10:48:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 OS: Including the effects of Mk48ADCAPs on their transports, Harpoon and Tomahawk impacts on their surface combatants, and stealth bombers dropping PGM onto anything left (and destroying their coastal ports and airfields in range of Taiwan)...

And what you've mentioned doesn't even require air strikes launched from carriers - this is wholly a submarine, destroyer and Air Force show.

NB: I had thought that the Tomahawk was only capable of attacking stationary land targets. But the FAS website had the following to say about the new and improved Tomahawks: TBIP will provide a single variant missile, the Tomahawk Multi-Mission Missile that is capable of attacking sea- and land-based targets in near real time.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 11:15:15 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-07 11:15:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 I think the two biggest challenges to Chinese strategists relate not to the carriers, which can be tracked by satellite - at least during the day, but to the stealth warplanes and the submarines, which cannot.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-07 11:27:18 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-07 11:27:18 PM|| Front Page Top

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