China's military 'set to compete with US'
China is rapidly extending its military reach, buying more long-range aircraft and weapons that will allow it to compete with the US and potentially pose a threat to other countries in the region, a Pentagon report said yesterday.
The pace and scope of China’s progress in modernising its military suggests it is looking beyond Taiwan, the self-governing island that draws much of its attention, according to the annual study.
The new report echoes worries expressed by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a China visit late last year about advances in its nuclear capabilities, and suggestions that the government should be more open about its intentions.
And while the report discusses various developments in China during the past year, many are incremental and do not represent any dramatic changes since the Pentagon issued its 2005 summary last July.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy said he had not yet seen the report. Chinese officials have criticised similar past studies, saying China is not a threat and accusing the US of manufacturing excuses to sell weapons to Taiwan.
According to the Pentagon document, improvements in China’s long-term nuclear strategy and its precision weaponry “have the potential to pose credible threats to modern militaries operating in the region”. It adds that China’s leaders have still not adequately explained the purposes of the military expansion.
Paralleling China’s advances during the past year have been similar increases in corruption in the country, as well as heightened protests by its people over property rights, pensions and labour conditions, the report says.
Meanwhile, China’s ambassador portrayed his country yesterday as a benign force in Africa that dispatches doctors and teachers to the continent, opens trade opportunities and steers clear of political interference.
Speaking to a gathering sponsored by the Ralph Bunche International Centre at Washington’s Howard University, Ambassador Zhao Wenzhong acknowledging Africa’s increasing importance as a supplier of natural resources for China’s rapidly expanding economy.
In stressing China’s policy of non-interference in Africa’s internal affairs, Zhao appeared to be responding to criticism that his country makes no distinctions between countries with poor human rights records and those with good records.
“We respect African countries’ choices of political systems,” Zhao said. He added that China’s policies do not jeopardise the interests of third parties.
