• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Chinese News Agency Slams US Report on China's Military Build-Up

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of commentary by Xinhua reporters Wang Faen and Ban Wei by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Washington, 19 July: The 2005 "Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China" dished up by the US Department of Defence finally emerged on 19 July. Although the White House ordered revisions on many occasions to harmonize the approach, this 45-page report whose publication date has been delayed many times continues to wantonly create and play up the argument that China's normal military development "poses a threat to the region and indeed to the United States", and again appears before the world with the features of Cold War mentality and power logic.

The US Defence Department started to put out a so-called annual report on China's military power in 2000. Taking a comprehensive look at the Pentagon's reports on China's military power over the years, it is not hard to people to discover that the "theory of the China threat" is a main thread running through them, and the 2005 report has been unable to get away from this set pattern.

Harping again on the old tune, using exaggerated language, and saying frightening things to alarm people has been the US Defence Department's consistent method in writing these reports. The Pentagon report has yet again levelled unreasonable accusations against China's military budget, wildly claiming that China's actual military spending is two to three times the publicly announced figure, and may be as high as $90bn in 2005; it even categorically asserts that China's actual military spending has now jumped into first place in Asia and third in the world. The report also absurdly declares that China today is not facing direct threat from any country, yet it continues to invest vast sums into boosting its military strength.

What is inconceivable is, while continually and viciously attacking China, the United States, with the highest military spending in the world, has all along increased its expenditure for many years. The 2005 yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Studies Institute, an authoritative body in global military studies, shows that US military spending in 2004 was as high as 455bn US dollars, representing 47 per cent of total global military spending. A report on military expenditure published by the NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels in June shows that total US military spending in 2004 was 462.099bn US dollars. In contrast to the United States, China's national defence spending is still at a relatively low level. China's national defence expenditure in 2004 was 211.7bn renminbi, while US per-capita national defence spending was 77 times that of China. Everything the United States does is a clear case of "the magistrates are free to burn down houses, while the common people are forbidden even to light lamps."

Deliberately exaggerating the disparity in military strength on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has always been an important part of the Pentagon reports. The report claims that mainland China has deployed 650 to 730 short-range missiles on the opposite shore to Taiwan, and the number is growing by 100 each year, while the missile range and accuracy are also improving. For many years the US military has all along preached the absurd theory of the imbalance of cross-strait military strength, which is tilted towards mainland China and threatens Taiwan's peace and stability. The facts are however that the biggest actual threat to Taiwan's peace and stability comes from "Taiwan independence" elements, who have forgotten their own origins, and their separatist activities. It is precisely the actions of the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party since coming to power in rejecting the one China policy, negating the "consensus of '92" and pursuing a "Taiwan independence" line that has heightened Taiwan Strait tension.

The US objective in making a great fuss about the Taiwan issue is to help American arms manufacturers to expand their arms market and make more money, and at the same time to erect artificial obstacles to China's reunification cause. Since the United States announced the sale of 18bn US dollars worth of advanced weapons to Taiwan, the US government and public have maintained high pressure on the Taiwan authorities in recent years, compelling it to pay vast sums in "protection money" to the United States. According to incomplete statistics, from 1979 to the end of last century, the United States sold 38bn US dollars worth of arms and equipment to Taiwan. Such US action openly tramples on the principles of the "17 August" communique.

It is not difficult to find through this report that there are always some people in the United States who do not want to see steady and healthy forward development in Sino-US relations. Some people in the Pentagon regard China as the US "strategic rival," and even hold the view that with the struggle against terrorism "having achieved results," with the Afghan and Iraq wars concluded, and "democracy" having taken root in those two countries, "the United States needs to find a new enemy". There has been a great clamour over the "theory of the China threat" in the United states in the first half of this year; thus one cannot but be alert against the intentions of certain people in the Pentagon.

The progress of Sino-US relations in recent years has attracted attention. There have been frequent exchanges between Chinese and US leaders, the bilateral high-level strategic dialogue has been further strengthened, the two countries have engaged in highly fruitful cooperation in opposing terrorism and in other major issues related to international security, and bilateral economic complementing and mutual dependence has continually strengthened; all these fully presage the prospect of development for Sino-US relations. US President Bush said on 19 July that Sino-US relations are very good, and are moreover "extremely important and extremely lively". Hill, assistant secretary of state for east Asian affairs, has said that Sino-US relations are by no means a "zero sum" game. In other words, in handling Sino-US relations in the 21st century is it necessary to discard the Cold War mentality, and the US side should promote healthy development of the relationship with new ways of thinking.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

More News in this Category