Chinese Tunnels, Mutual Assured Destruction, Nuclear Stalemate, START Treaty???
WantChinaTimes.com
Knowing China through Taiwan -----Saturday, December 3, 2011
Undergraduates dig into China's military secrets
A former top Pentagon official has for three years led a small band of students at Georgetown University in the US studying China's secret military arsenal, according to Washington Post.
Professor Phillip Karber, 65, who was a top strategist reporting directly to the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Cold War era, has led his students in translating hundreds of documents, combing through satellite imagery, obtaining restricted Chinese military documents and wading through hundreds of gigabytes of online data.
Their study is yet to be released, but many are anticipating the study's conclusion. It is said that China's nuclear arsenal could be many times larger than earlier estimates.
The Chinese military admitted for the first time in December 2009 that the Second Artillery had indeed been building a network of tunnels that could house nuclear weapons.
According to a report by state-run CCTV, China has more than 3,000 miles of tunnels, including deep underground bases that could withstand multiple nuclear attacks. The news confirmed the direction of Karber's research, but it also highlighted how little attention the tunnels were garnering outside East Asia.
Based on the number of tunnels the Second Artillery is digging and its increasing deployment of missiles, the professor argues, China's nuclear warheads could number as many as 3,000.
Some find Karber's research ridiculous while others believe it could be very useful.
"One thing his report accomplishes, I think, is it highlights the uncertainty about what China has," said Mark Stokes, executive director of think thank Project 2049 Institute, according to Washington Post. "There's no question China's been investing in tunnels, and to look at those efforts and pose this question is worthwhile."
China's 'underground' wall?
For Karber, provoking such debate means that he and his small army of undergrads have succeeded.
"I don't have the slightest idea how many nuclear weapons China really has, but neither does anyone else in the arms-control community," he said. "That's the problem with China, no one really knows except them."
Professor Phillip Karber, 65, who was a top strategist reporting directly to the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Cold War era, has led his students in translating hundreds of documents, combing through satellite imagery, obtaining restricted Chinese military documents and wading through hundreds of gigabytes of online data.
Their study is yet to be released, but many are anticipating the study's conclusion. It is said that China's nuclear arsenal could be many times larger than earlier estimates.
The Chinese military admitted for the first time in December 2009 that the Second Artillery had indeed been building a network of tunnels that could house nuclear weapons.
According to a report by state-run CCTV, China has more than 3,000 miles of tunnels, including deep underground bases that could withstand multiple nuclear attacks. The news confirmed the direction of Karber's research, but it also highlighted how little attention the tunnels were garnering outside East Asia.
Based on the number of tunnels the Second Artillery is digging and its increasing deployment of missiles, the professor argues, China's nuclear warheads could number as many as 3,000.
Some find Karber's research ridiculous while others believe it could be very useful.
"One thing his report accomplishes, I think, is it highlights the uncertainty about what China has," said Mark Stokes, executive director of think thank Project 2049 Institute, according to Washington Post. "There's no question China's been investing in tunnels, and to look at those efforts and pose this question is worthwhile."
China's 'underground' wall?
For Karber, provoking such debate means that he and his small army of undergrads have succeeded.
"I don't have the slightest idea how many nuclear weapons China really has, but neither does anyone else in the arms-control community," he said. "That's the problem with China, no one really knows except them."
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