http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/19/china.us.military.ap/index.html
U.S.: China looking beyond Taiwan
Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Posted: 1:47 a.m. EDT (05:47 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- China cannot be certain that its military,
while steadily strengthening, is capable of conquering Taiwan,
the Pentagon said Tuesday in a new report on Chinese military
power and strategy.
Over the longer term, however, an increasingly modernizing
Chinese military could pose a threat to U.S. and other forces in
the Asia-Pacific region, it said.
"Some of China's military planners are surveying the strategic
landscape beyond Taiwan," the report said.
Among a number of such developments, it noted improvements in
Chinese intercontinental-range missiles "capable of striking
targets across the globe, including the United States."
Air and naval force improvements also appear to be geared for
operations beyond the geography around Taiwan, an island less
than 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the Chinese coast, it added.
Fueled by a booming economy and foreign arms purchases, China's
military is developing new capabilities in line with Beijing's
strategy of deterring Taiwan from declaring its independence and
countering a potential U.S. military intervention, according to
the 45-page report, an annual assessment required by Congress.
The short-term focus of China's military was to prepare for
potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened
to invade if the self-governing island declares formal
independence or resists Beijing's insistence on negotiating
reunification. The United States, Taiwan's main arms supplier,
has cautioned both countries not to force a change in the status
quo.
Kurt Campbell, a senior Asia specialist at the Pentagon during
the Clinton administration, said in an interview that the report
was "slightly more alarmist" than previous Pentagon assessments
of China's military.
He noted that the report focused on a number of new Chinese
capabilities, including a naval buildup.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday, before
the report was released, that it would illustrate why a European
arms embargo against the Chinese should be kept in place.
Some members of the European Union, including France, have sought
to end the embargo, which was imposed after the Chinese military
crushed student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
It "clearly points up the reason that the president and the
United States government have been urging the EU to not lift the
arms embargo on the People's Republic of China," Rumsfeld told
reporters at the Pentagon.
At the White House, President George W. Bush said at a joint news
conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard that the
United States had a relationship with China that was "very
important and very vibrant. It's a good relationship, but it's a
complex relationship."
Bush said the United States and Australia "can work together to
reinforce the need for China to accept certain values as
universal: the value of minority rights, the value of freedom for
people to speak, the value of freedom of religion -- the same
values we share."
The House, while debating a State Department bill Tuesday,
accepted without dissent an amendment to approve sanctions to
deter foreign companies and nations, particularly in Europe, from
selling arms to China.
The House defeated a similar bill last week, but changes were
made to reassure American defense contractors that they would not
be subject to penalties unless they knowingly should transfer
technologies that could potentially have military applications.
The new assessment of China's military said reasons existed to
believe that China would not take military action against Taiwan.
"It does not yet possess the military capability to accomplish
with confidence its political objectives on the island,
particularly when confronted with outside intervention," it said.
Chinese leaders also believed that attacking Taiwan would
severely retard China's economic development and lead to
instability on the mainland.
Rumsfeld said China was at a strategic crossroad.
"As I see it, China is on a path where they are determined to
increase their economy, the opportunities for their people, and
to enter the world community," Rumsfeld said.
He said the Chinese had been doing "a number of things to leave
the world with the impression that they are a good place for
investment."
China needed to be more open, politically as well as
economically, Rumsfeld said, in order to be seen internationally
as a more welcome partner.
"To the extent the political system does not (open up), it will
inhibit the growth of their economy and ultimately the growth of
their military capabilities," he said.
___________________
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang
them." - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
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