China's military objectives reach far beyond Taiwan

“We kept silent and tolerant over territorial disputes with our neighbors in the past because our navy was incapable of defending our economic zones, but now the navy is able to carry out its task,” Xu Guangyu, a retired general, said in response to Japanese protests over Chinese ships chasing out a Japanese survey vessel in a disputed area.

General Xu termed China's previous naval absence “an abnormal historical accident” that is being rectified.

This suggests that previous Chinese actions and declarations made while in a state of relative military weakness no longer reflect Beijing's current intentions now that it has achieved much greater capabilities.

One example of a long-time policy that no longer appears to apply is China's stance on the militarization of outer space. Beginning in 1984, China insisted in the United Nations General Assembly that space is to be used strictly for peaceful purposes.

This was reiterated in 1998, when a white paper on defense said that China “opposes the development of anti-satellite weapons.” The white paper proposed “a complete ban on weapons of any kind in outer space, including anti-missile and anti-satellite weapons, so as to keep outer space free of weapons.”

It urged all countries to undertake not “to experiment with, produce or deploy outer space weapons.”

So it came as a shock when, in 2007, China tested a weapon in space, destroying one of its old satellites. Despite this, however, Beijing continued to insist that it was opposed to the militarization of space.

China's frequently declared policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, first enunciated in 1964, may also be in doubt, even though it continues to be China's stated position.

A glimpse into what China's real position may be was provided in 2005 by Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, dean of the Defense Affairs Institute of China's National Defense University, when he thought he was speaking off the record.

General Zhu blithely ignored all official statements regarding no first use and asserted that China would use nuclear weapons against the United States if war broke out over Taiwan.

Since then, China has again reiterated its position that it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons. Statements by General Zhu were never explained.

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