Page 2 of 2 Another challenge for China's
'iron woman' By Jing-dong Yuan
Secretary Robert Gates told
reporters that greater transparency on Beijing's
part could help clarify both its strategies and
intentions. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General
Peter Pace expressed concern over China's recent
anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test and submarine
activities. An analysis from the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative US think-tank, went so
far as to characterize Beijing's latest spending
increase as an effort to
challenge the status of the
United States as the world's sole military
superpower.
Chinese officials and analysts
reject US concerns and allegations, pointing out
that China's defense spending remains modest,
despite the recent increase, and in line with the
government's overall policy of making economic and
social developments its top priorities.
China's ASAT test in January has drawn the
most attention. US military leaders suggest that
the test has demonstrated significant progress by
incorporating a mobile platform in its launch
system, hence "displaying a worrisome level of
flexibility on the part of this potential
adversary", according to US Air Force chief of
staff General Michael Moseley.
Marine
Corps General James Cartwright, commander of the
US Strategic Force, testifying before the Senate
Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said
China is developing a full array of space weapons,
including missiles and jammers, and may deploy
nuclear weapons in space against US space assets.
Bill Gertz, a reporter for the Washington Times,
went even further: "Pentagon officials said
intelligence estimates indicate that China will
have produced enough satellite interceptors by
2010 to destroy most US low-Earth-orbit
satellites."
The US Office of Naval
Intelligence states that China is building five
nuclear-missile submarines armed with JL-2
ballistic missiles. There are also reports that
China is to build its own aircraft carrier that
would give it power-projection capabilities beyond
the Taiwan Strait to match its growing economic
power and secure its maritime interests. China
recently also launched its Jian-10 fighter
aircraft, which rival the best of the US and
Russian third-generation fleets.
These
sources argue that China's growing military
capabilities are shaking the region's military
balances of power and fanning a regional arms
race.
Finally, the Rand Corporation in a
recent report warns against growing Chinese
capabilities in using "anti-access" strategies to
prevent deployment and operation of US forces in
the Taiwan Strait and around the Korean Peninsula,
hence undermining Washington's ability to
accomplish its goals in the region.
Beijing rejects these allegations as
unfounded, exaggerated, and ill-intentioned, aimed
at stoking fear of a "China threat" in the region
and therefore justifying the United States' own
expansion of military spending and development of
new weapons systems. Chinese analysts also reject
US and Western reports that growing Chinese
military capabilities are changing the regional
balances of power, especially in the Taiwan
Strait.
Beijing's concerns over recent
Western and especially US exaggeration of Chinese
military capabilities are understandable. As China
continues to rise economically, it is bound to run
into conflicts with other key stakeholders in the
international economy. China can ill afford such
reports that describe rapid expansion and
improvement of its military capabilities,
especially given that it still has unresolved
territorial disputes with a number of neighboring
countries, including with another rising economic
power, India, and its strong rival for East Asian
primacy, Japan.
Not only can the revival
of the "China threat" rhetoric undermine its
efforts to project itself as seeking a peaceful
rise, but such concerns could also draw greater US
attention and hence Washington's incentive to
cement alliances and strengthen its military
presence in the region, which in turn further
complicate Beijing's agenda seeking an eventual
unification with Taiwan.
Vice Premier Wu's
upcoming visit to the United States comes at a
critical juncture. While her mission will be
largely economic- and trade-related, the nature
and intensity of US-China disputes are also a
reflection of how Beijing and Washington size up
each other in geostrategic terms and against a
much broader political environment. In that
context, the Wu-Paulson talks should focus on the
economic aspects of the bilateral ties but at the
same must also be attentive to the strategic
aspects of a still-evolving relationship.
Dr Jing-dong Yuan is director of
the education program at the Center for
Non-proliferation Studies and an associate
professor of international policy studies at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies.
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