China Building `Sophisticated' Military Capability, Gates Says
China's increased spending on its military is producing ``very sophisticated capabilities,'' and the U.S. wants more openness about the intent, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

``We wish that there were greater transparency, that they would talk more about what their intentions are,'' Gates said in a preview of the Pentagon's annual report on the Chinese military that is set for release tomorrow.

The report is ``a realistic appraisal of the Chinese view of their own security needs and what their strategies are,'' Gates told reporters at a news conference. ``I'm happy to report that I don't think it does any arm-waving. I don't think it does any exaggeration of the threat,'' he said.

The congressionally mandated document outlining the status of the military balance between China and Taiwan comes during a period of relative calm in U.S.-China military relations. Still, reports in past years have prompted an angry reaction from the Chinese government.

China's official military budget has grown in the past decade at rates that routinely exceeded the country's pace of economic expansion. China's gross domestic product has grown by an average of about 9 percent annually during that period, while the defense budget has risen by an average of 14 percent a year.

The official $45 billion defense-spending level for 2007 is less than 10 percent of the $622 billion the U.S. will spend on its military this year. U.S. officials and analysts say China habitually under-reports its true budget by a factor of two to three. Whatever China spends, some of its senior commanders say, it still isn't enough.

This year's report ``paints a picture of a country that has steadily devoted increasing resources to their military, that is developing some very sophisticated capabilities,'' Gates said.