China military buildup destabilizing-Japan report

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – China’s growing military strength and its
tense relationship with Taiwan are major destabilizing factors
in East Asia, according to a strategy report issued on Monday
by a think tank affiliated with Japan’s Defense Ministry.

Ties between Japan and China are at their worst state in
decades, strained by disputes including Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine.

Beijing sees the shrine as a symbol of Japan’s past
militarism because it honors convicted war criminals along with
the country’s war dead.

Koizumi strongly criticized China’s stance on Monday,
saying the shrine issue should not stand in the way of summit
meetings between the two nations.

“I still don’t understand why China and South Korea
criticize my visits to Yasukuni,” Koizumi told reporters. “I am
an advocate of friendly relations with China and South Korea.”

Koizumi reiterated that he visits the shrine to pray for
peace and honor the dead, not to glorify militarism.

In an annual report on East Asian strategy, the National
Institute for Defense Studies, a government-funded think tank,
warned of China’s military buildup and its growing pressure on
Taiwan under independence-minded President Chen Shui-bian.

“As the modernization of China’s armed forces has been
making headway, many observers take the view that the military
balance between China and Taiwan is shifting in China’s favor,”
the report said.

“The murky relations between China and Taiwan, and an
increase in China’s military muscle, can be seen as major
destabilizing factors in East Asia,” it added.

China’s 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army is the
world’s largest standing military, and Beijing said earlier
this month that its official defense budget would rise to 283.8
billion yuan ($35 billion) in 2006, up 14.7 percent from 2005.

The nation’s military spending has risen by double-digit
percentages for the last few years, but U.S. and Japanese
defense officials say China actually spends more on military
equipment and forces than the official budget shows.

In December, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso set off a
diplomatic furor when he said China’s military buildup was a
threat given its lack of transparency, prompting an angry
response from Beijing and further straining ties.

The report said China has increased the number of
short-range ballistic missiles deployed in coastal areas
bordering on the Taiwan Strait and that military exercises —
including a first-ever cooperative exercise between Russia and
China last year — appear conceptually aimed at Taiwan.

“Although Beijing seeks to unify Taiwan with mainland China
by peaceful means, it continues to modernize its nuclear and
missile capabilities, and its naval and air forces, to enable
it to prevent Taiwan from becoming independent,” it said.

China is trying to pursue a strong regional leadership role
through forming an East Asian community and trade agreements
with Southeast Asian nations, but the report said its
relationship with Japan remains in a stalemate.

Describing bilateral ties as “cold politically while warm
economically,” the report said the Chinese government’s hands
are tied by widespread anti-Japanese sentiment among the
Chinese public due to bitter memories of Japan’s invasion and
occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have sharply
deteriorated since Koizumi took office in 2001 and began annual
visits to Yasukuni shrine.

China has repeatedly said the visits are one of the biggest
blocks to bilateral ties, prompting Koizumi to repeat his
criticism of Beijing’s stance on Monday.

“It makes no sense for China not to hold summit meetings
because of the visits to Yasukuni,” Koizumi told a
parliamentary committee.

The two nations are also at odds over energy resources in
the East China Sea.

(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno)