US worried over China wants to be No. 1 military power

Washington: The US state Department is worried over China’s increasing No. 1 military power.
According the Pentagon’s annual China power report to Congress, released on Wednesday, China is steadily continuing a secretive and potentially destabilizing military buildup that would give the People’s Liberation Army a modernized regional armed force by the end of the decade. But the PLA will have limited ability to reach the United States for years to come, The Pentagon estimates China’s total military spending at $160 billion in 2010, more than Beijing’s stated military budget of $92 billion and a 12 percent spending increase over the previous year.

 

With Taiwan its chief concern, Beijing’s spending on “anti-access and area denial” weaponry designed to defend its claimed air and sea territory is tilting the balance of power toward the mainland. The Pentagon now feels Chinese leaders are worried about starting an arms race among its neighbors in the region.

 

Defense Department officials have said for months they believe China’s desire to modernize and increase its regional military capabilities is understandable given the rising power’s rapidly expanding global economic interests.

 

But Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has said that some weaponry seems to push Chinese capabilities beyond stated limited goals of its government, which must reveal more about how much it spends on its military, what it buys, and why.

 

“The United States welcomes a strong, prosperous and successful China,” the Pentagon report says, “that reinforces international rules and norms and enhances security and peace both regionally and globally.”

 

But 2010 was marred by a months-long relations freeze from Beijing in retaliation for a $6 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, the continuation of a pattern former Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to break. The thaw began when Gates and Mullen visited China this year, trips bolstered by lower-level military engagements discussing defense policy, maritime security and other sensitive security issues.

 

In recent weeks, global attention turned to China’s sea trials of its first aircraft carrier, a remodeled Russian ship. Schiffer said the ship does not yet have aircraft, and China is only land-training future carrier pilots thus far, so its significance is unknown.

 

“Whether or not this proves to be a net-plus for the region or for the globe, or proves to be something that has destabilizing effects and raises blood pressure in various regional capitals, I think, remains to be seen,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Schiffer said in a briefing.

 

China likely will begin building its own aircraft carrier this year, to be operational after 2015. Several more Chinese carriers and support ships are expected in the next 10 years. But it will take years for Chinese pilots to reach a “minimal level of combat capability” from a carrier.