New PLA missile `a warning' for the US, experts say

China's newly-developed submarine-launched Ju Lang-2 missile serves as a warning to the US not to underestimate Beijing's military power, Taiwanese military experts said yesterday.

"The Ju Lang-2 poses a great threat to the US because it has better precision and guidance and is harder to detect," said Weng Ming-hsien (翁明賢), a professor from the Institute of Strategic Studies at the Tamkang University.

"China wants to tell the US that it has never stopped developing nuclear arms. China also wants to warn Russia not to get too close to the US," he said.

Weng said China probably would deploy the Ju Lang-2, which carries nuclear warheads, on its Han-class nuclear submarines.

Lee Shih-ping, a military expert specializing in warplanes and warships, said Ju Lang-2 posed a new security threat to the US because it could be fired from the sea and reach the US interior.

"China now has a platform to carry and fire nuclear arms. It now ranks along with Britain, France, Russia and the US as the countries which have nuclear capability. Ju Lang-2 is a more lethal weapon and it is a weapon for invasion," he said.

Both Weng and Li said that the test-firing of Ju Lang-2 on July 16 last year was a warning for the US not to meddle in China's affairs, especially the Taiwan issue.

The Japanese government said Friday that China on Thursday had test-fired the Ju Lang-2 missile, a modified version of China's Dongfeng-31 intercontinental ballistic missile.

Ju Lang-2 was believed to have been fired from a nuclear sub in waters off Qingdao, landing in a desert in China several thousand kilometers away.