TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese war correspondent Liang Tung-ping (梁東屏) last Tuesday (June 9) angered a retired officer of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) by claiming on a talk show that even if China fired 30,000 missiles, the country would still not be able to completely defeat Taiwan.
Liang, who was previously stationed in Iraq to report on the Iraq War, appeared on the SET News politics program "Deng Knows" last week. While discussing China's hypothetical military invasion of Taiwan, Liang pointed out that in the initial stage of the Iraq War, the U.S. military attacked Baghdad with more than 400 Tomahawk missiles before deploying ground forces, Liberty Times reported.
However, he continued, it still took more than 20 days for American troops to finally take Baghdad.
Liang continued by saying that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a naval conflict that involves crossing a stretch of sea, which is "not so easy." Even if China launched 30,000 missiles, Taiwan could not be defeated so effortlessly, he went on to state.
According to a Chinese report, Liang's remarks infuriated retired PLA Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang (王洪光). Wang retorted that even if Liang's information on the Iraq War is correct, likening the conflict in Iraq to forced unification with Taiwan is like comparing apples to oranges.
He said that the purpose of Liang's speech had been to strengthen independence sentiment in the island nation and allay Taiwanese fears of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, Liang's comments only encourage China to intensify its espionage efforts in Taiwan, Wang said.
Wang emphasized that all targets with military value in Taiwan are numbered according to purpose, size, structural stability, ease of damage, and rebuilding time, allowing the PLA to achieve a high level of damage with the most cost-effective strategy and minimum losses.
It is not practical for China to fire 30,000 missiles, Wang noted, adding that even the U.S. military would not have required that many missiles when it was fighting in Vietnam and Iraq.
