Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

On March 17 and 18, the Republican-backed bill for the establishment of the National Missile defense (NMD) system passed both houses of US Congress. Hence, the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) system and NMD have become US policy.

This speeding up of the implementation of the missile defense program obviously goes against the trend of the times when the world is moving toward peaceful development. This will have a negative impact on world peace and stability, regional security and America's own security interests.

By speeding up its TMD research and development, the United States is further widening the military gap, disturbing the strategic balance of today's world and harming global peace and stability. It also violates the Missile and Technology Control Regime set up in 1987, and will encourage the militarization of outer-space.

The missile defense program implemented by the United States will probably lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and encourage a new arms race. Under threat, certain countries will be forced to develop more advanced missile systems, and some other countries will have a reason not to observe the requirements of international arms limitation agreements.

The United States plans to develop TMD, or jointly develop it with its allies in different parts of the world, with obvious harmful effects. In East Asia, the United States and Japan have made the decision to jointly develop TMD and to include other countries and Taiwan, a province of China, in its scope.

This will bring unimaginable consequences to this region. The Hong Kong-based magazine Asiaweek pointed out on March 15 that TMD deployment was a source of fresh tension. Indeed, the US-Japan joint development will greatly enhance the overall offensive and defensive level of the US-Japan military alliance, thus prompting Japan to violate the guarantee inscribed in its no-war constitution restricting it to a limited military capability for defense only, and expand once again into a military power.

The remarks that the Japan-US defense cooperative guidelines "naturally cover Taiwan'', and the idea that Japan can gain the initiative by striking foreign bases first, which have repeatedly been made in Japan, fully demonstrates this. More serious is that the establishment of TMD in Asia will lead to the growth of mutual suspicion among various countries in the region, further causing tension and giving rise to an arms race.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has issued a statement that whether the technology of launching a man-made satellite is made use of, or not for military purposes, entirely depends on the attitude of the United States and other hostile forces. Once Taiwan is included in TMD, the Chinese Government will strongly react.

While damaging the peace and stability of the whole world, and the interests of other countries, the US missile defense program also greatly damages the United States itself.

Firstly, research and development is an arduous and costly project. The United States has already invested a large sum, but this is just for starters. Last January, President Bill Clinton announced a planned US$6 billion increase for the development of TMD. It is planned that US$30 billion will be invested in this system in the forthcoming seven years.

The General Auditing Office estimates that, to build a launch site for TMD needs US$28 billion, but this is only the first phase. It can be imagined that the arms race caused by the US development of this system, having aroused a series of reactions, will force the US administration to offer more and more money to maintain its military superiority, thus falling into a bottomless spending hole. The key lies in the fact that the success rate of this system cannot be decided by the US experts, usually full of confidence. An indisputable fact is that most of the US trial launchings of interceptive missiles failed at the end. Even if the TMD will be successful on time, it will be a "limited defense'' or "protective hallucination'', as stated by US scholars.

The development of the TMD will bring great benefits to some Americans. The weapons industry can gain orders of US$ 10 billion; the Republicans can flaunt themselves as defenders of state interests to win public favor and votes in the upcoming presidential election. President Clinton's Democratic Party was forced to go along for the same reason, as well as ensuring jobs in the industry prior to the presidential election. An anonymous senior White House official was quoted as saying, "we gained the best deal we could.''

However, to use the huge amount of taxes paid by the American people abuses the interests of the majority. As for overall US interests, there are gains and losses. Persons of good sense understand it as soon as they look at it.

Secondly, the US TMD has seriously impacted relations between the big countries. Russia has, on many occasions expressed its opposition to TMD, and the US demand for revision of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), considering this program is a serious violation of the stipulations of START I. This has also influenced ratification of START II.

A foreign observer pointed out that bringing Taiwan under the TMD umbrella runs the risk of causing a Sino-US conflict. If the United States and Japan expand the TMD scope to Taiwan , the Chinese reaction would include: 1) enhancing the international military struggle with the United States, such as a relaxation of export controls on missile technology; 2) retarget intercontinental missiles against major American cities; 3) renew nuclear tests and develop a new generation of nuclear weapons; and 4) adopt a confrontational position on international issues with the United States. Some analysts said that, in face of the US missile expansion, China and Russia will again cooperate in the Geneva meeting on limiting the development of nuclear weapons, jointly oppose the United States and probably launch anti-limitation deployment.

Thirdly, the United States always poses as a peacemaker promoting the process of nuclear disarmament, proclaiming it would take the "leading responsibility'' in the world and "enhancing independently and leading the international community to enforce the law.'' The US action to speed up development of TMD has put another black mark next to its name as spreader of weapons of mass destruction further harming its image that is already far from good with the international community. The saying goes that "a just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust one finds little support.'' On the issue of developing TMD, even US allies have different views. The President of the Republic of Korea, Kim Dae-jung, has already made clear that his country is not willing to join the system.