LexisNexis(TM) Academic - Document
Copyright 2005 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London, England)
July 21, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1
SECTION: ASIA-PACIFIC; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 748 words
HEADLINE: Report strikes Beijing nerve at politically sensitive time: China's expanding military has raised fears among its neighbours too, write Mure Dickie, Kathrin Hille andDemetri Sevastopulo
BYLINE: By MURE DICKIE, KATHRIN HILLE and DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO
BODY:
Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's feisty president, has long issued dire warnings to regional neighbours that China's rapid military modernisation poses a potential threat that reaches far beyond the shores of his disputed island.
Mr Chen's warnings tend to be ignored, publicly at least, but this week he won some strong backing in the shape of a report by the US Department of Defense that suggested China's growing military could tempt Beijing in future to use force against its neighbours.
The Pentagon report also detailed China's efforts to acquire the means to wage war successfully against Taiwan, over which it claims sovereignty, and to deter other countries from coming to Taipei's defence.
In doing so it highlighted one of Asia's most sensitive security issues: China's determination to use its growing economic power to create a modern military capable of operating far beyond its borders.
Joseph Wu, Taiwan's top official responsible for policy towards China, says: "The report's assessment - that China's military build-up is a threat both in the Taiwan Strait and also to regional security - is in line with our assessment, and we welcome that."
Dan Blumenthal, defence analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the report underscored the US view that China was determined to be the dominant power in Asia, and that the arms being developed for any Taiwan conflict could "have applications for its aspirations elsewhere".
While Taipei welcomed the report, Beijing was furious at what it called a baseless attack on its normal and reasonable defence modernisation - and a scheme intended to provide excuses for US sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan.
The report comes at a sensitive moment in ties between the world's most populous country and its most powerful.
CNOOC, the Chinese state-controlled oil group, is bidding to acquire the US energy group Unocal, a move that has already prompted objections from some US politicians on security grounds. And Hu Jintao, China's president, is planning to visit the US in September.
Beijing's efforts to promote its military modernisation as merely part of its "defensive defence policy" had already suffered a blow last week when a senior Chinese military official declared that the People's Liberation Army was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US in case of a conflict over Taiwan.
Zhu Chenghu, a PLA major-general and professor at China's National Defence University, said that if the US was determined to interfere in such a war, then China might have to go nuclear. The remarks sharply contradicted China's long-standing pledge never to be the first to use nuclear weapons. While Beijing officials have played down the general's remarks as his personal opinion, they have not publicly disavowed them.
Indeed, one respected Chinese academic says Mr Zhu's view is merely a logical recognition of the fact that the PLA would not be able to rely on conventional weapons to ward off US involvement in a battle over Taiwan. "If the US sent its military to Taiwan without the Chinese government's approval, that would constitute an invasion of China, and subsequently undercut China's core interest," the academic says.
Jing Huang, a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, says Mr Zhu would never have been able to make such comments unless he was backed by powerful forces within the PLA.
There is no doubt, however, that Mr Zhu will have fuelled US concerns about Beijing's development of its nuclear forces.
China has long been an extremely restrained nuclear power, relying on a "minimum deterrent" force centred on only a few dozen liquid-fuelled silo-based missiles capable of hitting the US.
But the Pentagon report notes Beijing plans to deploy over the next few years new road-mobile solid-fuelled DF-31 and DF-31A ballistic missiles that would be much harder for the US to target and destroy. One Senate aide says the report is "completely consistent" with US mainstream thinking about China.
"(China's) defence modernisation is focused principally on Taiwan contingencies that include the need to dissuade or deter American involvement in a Taiwan contingency," he says.
The report was the subject of intense debate in Washington, with National Security Council and State Department officials opposing some of the harsher rhetoric included by the Pentagon in earlier drafts.
The aide said the NSC appeared to have convinced the Pentagon to tone down some of the original more inflammatory language.
LOAD-DATE: July 21, 2005
Financial Times (London, England)
July 21, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1
SECTION: ASIA-PACIFIC; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 748 words
HEADLINE: Report strikes Beijing nerve at politically sensitive time: China's expanding military has raised fears among its neighbours too, write Mure Dickie, Kathrin Hille andDemetri Sevastopulo
BYLINE: By MURE DICKIE, KATHRIN HILLE and DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO
BODY:
Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's feisty president, has long issued dire warnings to regional neighbours that China's rapid military modernisation poses a potential threat that reaches far beyond the shores of his disputed island.
Mr Chen's warnings tend to be ignored, publicly at least, but this week he won some strong backing in the shape of a report by the US Department of Defense that suggested China's growing military could tempt Beijing in future to use force against its neighbours.
The Pentagon report also detailed China's efforts to acquire the means to wage war successfully against Taiwan, over which it claims sovereignty, and to deter other countries from coming to Taipei's defence.
In doing so it highlighted one of Asia's most sensitive security issues: China's determination to use its growing economic power to create a modern military capable of operating far beyond its borders.
Joseph Wu, Taiwan's top official responsible for policy towards China, says: "The report's assessment - that China's military build-up is a threat both in the Taiwan Strait and also to regional security - is in line with our assessment, and we welcome that."
Dan Blumenthal, defence analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said the report underscored the US view that China was determined to be the dominant power in Asia, and that the arms being developed for any Taiwan conflict could "have applications for its aspirations elsewhere".
While Taipei welcomed the report, Beijing was furious at what it called a baseless attack on its normal and reasonable defence modernisation - and a scheme intended to provide excuses for US sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan.
The report comes at a sensitive moment in ties between the world's most populous country and its most powerful.
CNOOC, the Chinese state-controlled oil group, is bidding to acquire the US energy group Unocal, a move that has already prompted objections from some US politicians on security grounds. And Hu Jintao, China's president, is planning to visit the US in September.
Beijing's efforts to promote its military modernisation as merely part of its "defensive defence policy" had already suffered a blow last week when a senior Chinese military official declared that the People's Liberation Army was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US in case of a conflict over Taiwan.
Zhu Chenghu, a PLA major-general and professor at China's National Defence University, said that if the US was determined to interfere in such a war, then China might have to go nuclear. The remarks sharply contradicted China's long-standing pledge never to be the first to use nuclear weapons. While Beijing officials have played down the general's remarks as his personal opinion, they have not publicly disavowed them.
Indeed, one respected Chinese academic says Mr Zhu's view is merely a logical recognition of the fact that the PLA would not be able to rely on conventional weapons to ward off US involvement in a battle over Taiwan. "If the US sent its military to Taiwan without the Chinese government's approval, that would constitute an invasion of China, and subsequently undercut China's core interest," the academic says.
Jing Huang, a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, says Mr Zhu would never have been able to make such comments unless he was backed by powerful forces within the PLA.
There is no doubt, however, that Mr Zhu will have fuelled US concerns about Beijing's development of its nuclear forces.
China has long been an extremely restrained nuclear power, relying on a "minimum deterrent" force centred on only a few dozen liquid-fuelled silo-based missiles capable of hitting the US.
But the Pentagon report notes Beijing plans to deploy over the next few years new road-mobile solid-fuelled DF-31 and DF-31A ballistic missiles that would be much harder for the US to target and destroy. One Senate aide says the report is "completely consistent" with US mainstream thinking about China.
"(China's) defence modernisation is focused principally on Taiwan contingencies that include the need to dissuade or deter American involvement in a Taiwan contingency," he says.
The report was the subject of intense debate in Washington, with National Security Council and State Department officials opposing some of the harsher rhetoric included by the Pentagon in earlier drafts.
The aide said the NSC appeared to have convinced the Pentagon to tone down some of the original more inflammatory language.
LOAD-DATE: July 21, 2005
posted by Eastlaw at 9:10 AM
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