US likened to a 'whore'

2004-06-16 14:48

Beijing - A top Chinese general on Wednesday called the United States "a whore" for suggesting that Taiwan try to destroy the Three Gorges Dam, while maintaining that it could never be hit by Taipei's conventional arms.

Lieutenant General Liu Yuan, the son of China's formerly deposed president Liu Shaoqi, slammed the Pentagon for suggesting that Taiwan was preparing an attack on the massive hydro-electric project as a counter measure to growing mainland forces aimed at retaking the island democracy.

"Some people who say they support democracy, wave the flag of human rights and shout about fighting terrorism, are actually a bunch of provocateurs, inciting nationalism and purposely and shamelessly provoking revenge without regard to consequences," he said in a front page editorial in the China Youth Daily.

"It is very clear, they are whores, masquerading as gentleman, and are willing to go farther than (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden."

The stinging rebuke comes a day after Taiwan said it had tested two US-made Patriot anti-missile missiles, as tensions across the Taiwan Straits grow following the re-election of pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian.

Statements made by Taiwan military officials on a potential attack on the $25bn dam, coupled with the Pentagon's recent annual assessment on China's military capability, has spurred the mainland to better prepare for the "terrorism of Taiwan independence forces," Liu said.

"The Three Gorges Dam will not collapse and cannot be destroyed," Liu said.

"To begin with, Taiwan does not have nuclear weapons."

Any attack on the dam "will provoke retaliation that will 'blot out the sky and cover up the earth'," he said.

- AFP