Pentagon seeks clarity on China military build-up

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Pentagon seeks clarity on China military build-up


Reuters

March 25, 2009

China's limited transparency about its rapidly expanding military capabilities creates uncertainty and risks of miscalculation, the Pentagon said in a report released on Wednesday.

The annual report to the U.S. Congress on Chinese military power said China's People's Liberation Army has "left unclear to the international community the purposes and objectives of the PLA's evolving doctrine and capabilities."

The report comes just weeks after Chinese boats jostled with a U.S. Navy surveillance ship in the South China Sea in a confrontation that heightened tensions over Chinese military activities near its coasts.

Risks to the United States and its allies in the Pacific region arise from incomplete defense spending figures and actions that appear inconsistent with declared policies, said the report, the first under the Obama administration.
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China could undermine US military power in Pacific: Gates



China's increasingly advanced weaponry could undermine US militaryPacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.

Echoing US intelligence guidelines released on Tuesday that warned of Beijing's military modernization, Gates said US naval carriers and air bases in the Pacific faced new threats from China.

"In fact, when considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the US symmetrically -- fighter to fighter or ship to ship -- and more with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options," Gates said in a speech to the Air Force Association.

"Investments in cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, and ballistic missiles could threaten America's primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific -- in particular our forward air bases and carrier strike groups," Gates said in National Harbor,Maryland.
The new threats meant long-range military aircraft would take on greater importance as the latest weaponry would "degrade the effectiveness of short-range fighters and put more of a premium on being able to strike from over the horizon -- whatever form that capability might take," he said.

Defense analysts have warned that the US military will soon lose its dominance on the high seas, in space and in cyberspace as China and other emerging powers obtain sophisticated weaponry and missiles.

The United States released its 2009 National Intelligence Strategy document Tuesday, in which China's "natural resource-focused diplomacy and military modernization" were cited as factors making it a "global challenge."

The intelligence guidelines for the next four years also elevated the importance of the cyber domain, singling out China as "very aggressive in the cyberworld."

[Malsua]

We build fo peaceful puposes. You ignoe that big ship back there. It mean nothing.
We have no missile.

Reminds me of a scene...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49Iwfp8U-U

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China says military arsenal comparable with West

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN (AP) – 2 days ago

BEIJING — China's military now possesses most of the sophisticated weapon systems found in the arsenals of developed Western nations, the country's defense minister said in comments published Monday.

Many of China's systems, including the J-10 fighter jet, latest-generation tanks, navy destroyers, and cruise and intercontinental ballistic missiles, match or are close to matching the capabilities of those in the West, Liang Guanglie said in a rare interview posted on the ministry's Web site.

"This is an extraordinary achievements that speaks to the level of our military's modernization and the huge change in our country's technological strength," Liang said.

But an analyst said the claim was likely directed at the Chinese public and exaggerated its technological prowess.

The minister's remarks come ahead of the country's biggest military parade in a decade scheduled for the Oct. 1 National Day in Beijing. That event will showcase much of the country's most advanced equipment, the fruit of a booming economy and nearly two decades of annual double digit percentage increases in the defense budget.

Liang said he believed the parade would "display the image of a mighty force, a civilized force, a victorious force."

Still, in its 2009 report on Beijing's military power, the Pentagon ranked Chinese defense technology below that of the United States — as it always has — but noted that the country's armed forces have improved their capacity to carry out operations away from its shores and deny other militaries access to its airspace and seas off its coast.

Defense industry reforms and arms imports "have enabled China to develop and produce advanced weapon systems such as missiles, fighter aircraft and warships," the report says.

Hans M. Kristensen, an expert on the Chinese military at the Federation of American Scientists, said Liang's comments may have overestimated the country's capabilities.

"Although Western countries are concerned and uncertain about China's military modernization, China hasn't gone through the wars that have shaped and sharpened the swords and strategies of the Western militaries," Kristensen said. "It takes a great deal more than building a weapon system for it to be technologically comparable."

The 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army is the world's largest standing military and its modernization has been accompanied by gradual steps toward greater engagement with the outside world. Liang said China has contributed 13,000 troops to U.N. peace keeping operations along with three navy flotillas to join in anti-piracy patrols of the coast of Somalia.

Despite such moves, however, the PLA remains largely a closed shop and military ties with the United States and other nations are often hobbled by disputes over Taiwan and other political issues.

China's improved capabilities are also seen as emboldening the country's military and civilian leaders in using force to back up political and territorial claims. Chinese ships have repeatedly harassed U.S. Navy surveillance vessels collecting intelligence off China's southeastern coast, while Chinese submarines have aggressively pursued aircraft carrier battle groups.

And while relations with Taiwan have warmed in recent months, Beijing continues to add to the hundreds of missiles it has pointed at the self-governing island that China considers its own territory — to be unified with by force if need be.

Analysts say the odds of conflict with the U.S., Japan and other regional militaries is likely to increase as China further beefs up its arsenal.
China announced a 14.9 percent rise in military spending in its 2009 budget, to 480.6 billion yuan ($70.3 billion). Many observers say actual Chinese military spending is much higher.

The 225,000-sailor People's Liberation Army Navy already operates more submarines than any other Asian nation, with up to 10 nuclear-powered vessels and as many as 60 diesel-electric subs. It boasts almost 80 destroyers and frigates — more than a dozen of which have entered service since the 1990s — along with hundreds of smaller craft and support ships.

China's second-generation, nuclear-powered Jin and Shang class submarines are considered just a notch below cutting-edge U.S. and Russian craft. The diesel-electric Yuan class boasts a Chinese-developed air-independent propulsion system that allows it to remain submerged for weeks, while Chinese Luyang destroyers and Jiangkai missile frigates incorporate stealth features and a mix of latest-generation Chinese and Russian weapon systems.

Liang made no mention of an aircraft carrier or other systems that Beijing is believed to be pursuing. However, he said the military's goal is to achieve complete mechanization and computerization by 2020 and produce a fully modern force before mid-century.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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China 'has weapon arsenal comparable with West', says country's defence minister

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 1:47 AM on 22nd September 2009

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China's military now possesses most of the sophisticated weapon systems found in the arsenals of developed Western nations, the country's defence minister has said.

Many of those systems match or are close to matching the capabilities of their counterparts in the West, Liang Guanglie said in a rare interview posted on the ministry's Web site today.

'This is an extraordinary achievements that speaks to the level of our military's modernization and the huge change in our country's technological strength,' Liang said.


Military might: Chinese army tanks on a military exercise in central China's Henan Province - the country now has most of the sophisticated weapon systems found in developed Western nations, it has said

Liang cited the J-10 fighter jet, latest-generation tanks, navy destroyers, and cruise and intercontinental ballistic missiles as among the Chinese defense industry's biggest achievements.

The military's goal is to achieve complete mechanization and computerization by 2020 and produce a fully modern force before mid-century, Liang said.

The minister's remarks come ahead of China's biggest military parade in a decade scheduled for the October 1 national day in Beijing.

That event will showcase much of the country's most advanced equipment, the fruit of China's booming economy and nearly two decades of annual double digit percentage increases in the defence budget.

Liang said he believed the parade would 'display the image of a mighty force, a civilized force, a victorious force.'

The 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army is the world's largest standing military and its modernization has been accompanied by gradual steps toward greater engagement with the outside world.

Liang said China has contributed 13,000 troops to U.N. peace keeping operations along with three navy flotillas to join in anti-piracy patrols of the coast of Somalia.

Despite such moves, however, the PLA remains largely a closed shop and military ties with the United States and other nations are often hobbled by disputes over Taiwan and other political issues.

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Defense Minister highlights military achievement ahead of National Day parade

( Source: Xinhua ) 2009-September-22 06:41



BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Defense Minister Liang Guanglie stressed on Monday that the absolute control under the Communist Party of China (CPC) has guaranteed the country's armed forces have achieved landmark progress in the past six decades.

Liang, a State Councilor and also member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) as a full general, made the remark during an exclusive interview with Xinhua less than ten days leading to a grand military parade scheduled on China's National Day.

The minister said a solid ideological and political leadership by the CPC is the greatest difference between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the armed forces of Western countries, by which the Party's troops have endured various tests and shown loyalty, bravery and services to the people.

The PLA has achieved leaping upgrades in its defensive combat abilities to realize that the armed forces could effectively safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Gen. Liang said.

Liang emphasized that the PLA could not make the achievements without several rounds of disarmament and its internal reforms to optimize the military resources and command systems since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

The PLA once had 6,000,000 uniformed members. The most high-profile cut was conducted by late CMC Chairman Deng Xiaoping who made a surprising decision in 1985 to reduce ranks by 1,000,000, mostly from the army and military schools.

After the latest cut in 2005, the PLA now has 2.3 million servicemen, although it remains the world's most populous armed force.

Gen. Liang said that after consistent efforts by scientists and researchers as well as China's improving industrial capacities, the PLA's arsenal has been equipped with all major weapon systems on the land, in the sea and air just like other major military powers.

"We now have military satellites, advanced jets, new main battle tanks, sophisticated warships and subs," Liang said, adding that some of the weaponry have caught up with world-leading standards.

After nearly 60 years of construction and development, China has set a strategic target to realize basic defense and military modernization, he said.

Achieving this objective, the Army's mobility level will be upgraded to give greater regional capabilities, and the Navy will be capable of both a strong coastal defense and certain measures for blue water combat, Liang said.

The Air Force will be transformed from a fleet that could only provide homeland air defense to an aerial power capable of a combination of offensive and defensive operations, and the Second Artillery Corps, China's strategic missile troops, will become a truly efficient force with both nuclear and conventional striking power, he said.

The military parade on Chang'an Avenue in front of the Tian'anmen Square on Oct. 1 will probably be the best footnote to Liang's remarks.

According to Lt. Gen. Fang Fenghui, general director of the parade, 52 types of new weapon systems developed with China's own technologies will be showcased to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.

China will unveil for the first time the PLA's airborne early warning and control (AEWC) aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and other novel military hardware which have seen active service.

With a distinctive theme of "Made in China" to be showcased by the military parade, the Defense Minister said the Chinese defense industry has been also upgraded from copying Russian made weapons in 1950s and 1960s to a self-reliance on designing and manufacturing from the 1970s onwards.

Another progress is the improved heritage of national defense mobilization which has played a unique role and advantage in the PLA's service in peace time and in missions to help civilians in emergencies, Liang said.

The two events that impressed the 68-year-old minister most were the PLA's engagement in fighting a severe flood disaster in 1998 and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province last year.

"The troops and even many veterans were quickly mobilized and gathered to fight the flood at the front line in spite of danger to life," Liang said.

"I also witnessed very moving moments during the earthquake relief work when quake survivors saved by the PLA soldiers expressed their sincere appreciations," he said.

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China army parade may give clue to new missiles



Frontier defence soldiers and university students form the number 60 to celebrate the upcoming 60th anniversary of the founding of China during a photo call in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province on September 22, 2009. Photo/REUTERS

By REUTERSPosted Wednesday, September 23 2009 at 11:53

When the National Day parade rolls down Beijing's streets next week, foreign observers will look beyond the goose-stepping soldiers for signs that China is developing a new missile able to threaten U.S. aircraft carriers.

If China is able to mount systems that support an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), it could force the U.S. carrier fleet to keep a greater distance, American defense analysts said, changing U.S. strategy for defending Taiwan should war break out.

On October 1, all eyes will be on the Avenue of Eternal Peace to see if China displays a Dongfeng 21-D missile, with maneuverable fins to help it find a moving target at sea, as well as a more finalized launch vehicle.

"The ASBM is far from operational, but it is close enough to make a splash," said Eric McVadon, a retired rear admiral whose 35-year naval career included a defense attache post in Beijing.

"It is something big. It represents the ability to make the U.S. think twice before sending carrier strike groups into the Western Pacific."

China is using the parade, which involves hundreds of thousands of marchers, to celebrate its modernization and the spectacular economic growth of three decades of reform.

Ten years ago, the military parade showcased new fighter jets and a model of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

This one will highlight achievements like the budding space programme -- illustrated in a topiary display along the route -- and the army's rescue work after a devastating 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.

New weaponry and priorities will stand out. This week, Defense Minister Liang Guanglie outlined plans to transform naval and air forces to project power far from China's shores.

Eye on Taiwan

Current warming ties between China and Taiwan make a military confrontation less likely, but both sides are still heavily armed against each other. The United States has committed to help the island defend itself in case of war.

The United States uses its carriers to maintain a presence near Taiwan and in much of the Pacific.

It sent a carrier group through the Taiwan Strait to counter Chinese saber-rattling a few months before Taiwan's 1996 presidential election.

A weapon like an ASBM -- or even a credible threat -- that could keep U.S. ships far out at sea for longer would buy China the time to overwhelm Taiwan's defenses in the event of conflict.

An ASBM deployed from Chinese territory would have a range of about 1,500 km (930 miles), enough to reach far beyond Taiwan and cover much of Japan and the Philippines.

An ASBM would be an "asymmetric" weapon, since a carrier group has inadequate direct defense against it, especially if confronted with multiple missiles, unlike the more traditional submarines or bombers which a carrier group can counter.

McVadon credits China for choosing to develop missiles, rather than take the more uncertain route of trying to directly match the U.S. strength in ships and submarines.

"China's great success has been that it went to missiles," said McVadon, now director for Asia Pacific Studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis in Washington.

"It was a prudent decision to get around our strengths. They really made the right call."

Other analysts caution that successfully modifying the Dongfeng series missile to hit ships would not be enough to successfully hold an aircraft carrier at bay.

"Seeing it in the parade is not hard evidence that the missile is operative," said Matthew Durnin, a Beijing-based researcher with the World Security Institute.

He recently co-authored a paper on the challenges of developing the systems -- including satellites -- needed to properly guide an ASBM.

"But U.S. intelligence believes that if this is credibly developed and deployed, it would change carrier strike group deployments."

Durnin predicts China will test the missile within the next two years, to prove it can hit a ship at sea.

He estimates it will be about five years before China has the satellites in place to fully track a moving target on the vast Pacific.

"It will be very expensive to develop all the supporting infrastructure for such a system, and whether the Chinese will make the necessary investments is fundamentally a political question," said David Yang, a political scientist at RAND Corp. who has also written on the ASBM system.

Minister Liang said the Second Artillery Corps, which holds the keys to the country's nuclear weapons, would soon also control some conventional weapons.

American strategists believe the ASBM could fall under that service's remit.

Even without full satellite cover, the threat to carrier groups is credible if China is able to launch multiple missiles and cripple, but not necessarily sink, a carrier or its escorts.

"I'm not forecasting its usage. They are doing it hoping it will deter, and never be used in combat," McVadon said.

"We may never know how well it works."

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The PRC 60th Anniversary Parade: Equipment on Display, Not Military Capabilities

Publication: China Brief Volume: 9 Issue: 19
September 24, 2009 04:34 PM Age: 3 days
Category: China Brief, Military/Security, China and the Asia-Pacific, Home Page
By: Dennis J. Blasko


Tongzhou Airfield Second Artillery Contingent (L) and Tongzhou Airfield Barracks North (R)


The Chinese press has announced that 52 types of “new weapon systems” will be on display in 30 vehicle and 12 air formations during the October 1st military parade portion of the 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PLA Daily, September 17). Fourteen dismounted formations from active and reserve People’s Liberation Army (PLA) units, military academies, the People’s Armed Police (PAP), and militia will follow the tri-service honor guard. All personnel will wear new (Type-07) camouflage, service, or dress uniforms issued in recent years.

Based on what can be deduced from other official media reports, unofficial Chinese blogs and internet postings, and public satellite images (i.e. Google Earth), outside observers can verify what the Chinese have said and make a pretty good prediction of what will be seen during the parade. Yet, the new uniforms and newly painted equipments on display indicate little about actual Chinese military capabilities. The more pertinent issue for Chinese military experts is how the parade reflects military doctrine and how the preparations for this event impact the annual training schedule for the personnel and units involved.

All of the Chinese Armed Forces on Parade

This is a parade of the entire Chinese armed forces, not just the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The Chinese armed forces are a “party army”: their loyalty is pledged to the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), not the state (People's Republic of China). The first mission defined by Party General-Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Hu Jintao in his “historic missions in the new century” is to safeguard the Party’s governing position (Xinhua News Agency, October 25, 2007).

Every parade formation, except for the honor guard, will be led by two leaders or two vehicles. These pairs represent unit commanders and political officers. In the Chinese armed forces, the commander and political officer are jointly responsible for the actions of their unit. There are many examples where both commander and political officer were relieved of their duties when something went wrong.

By law, the Chinese armed forces are composed of 1) the active and reserve units of the PLA, 2) the PAP, and 3) the militia. The PLA is composed of three services, the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and an independent branch, the Second Artillery—the strategic missile force composed of both nuclear and conventionally-armed ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Each element of the armed forces has a primary mission: the PLA is focused primarily on defense against external enemies; the primary role of the PAP, in conjunction with the civilian Ministry of Public Security police force, is internal/domestic security [The security tasks of the PAP were enumerated recently in the Law on the People's Armed Police Force of the People's Republic of China passed on August 29, 2009.]; while the militia may provide support to both external and domestic security missions. As secondary tasks, the PLA and the PAP may support the other in their primary missions.

According to Chinese doctrine (for example, see The Science of Campaigns), all elements of the armed forces are to be integrated with civilian support into joint campaigns to fight local wars under informationized conditions or conduct “non-traditional security” missions (e.g. anti-terrorism, disaster relief operations, internal stability functions, public health security).

In any mission the armed forces undertake the Chinese leadership will seek to mobilize the public to support their efforts politically, economically, and materially as necessary. In that regard, while stoking national pride the 60th anniversary parade aims also illustrate to the Chinese population that the last decade of double-digit increases to the defense budget have resulted in tangible progress (China Brief, September 10). This is a people’s parade and the uniformed participants fully understand that they need the public’s support as they continue to operate within the modernized “strategic concept” of People’s War, which originated as a political-military strategy invented by Mao Zedong.

Also according to Chinese doctrine, military parades contribute to China’s overall, multi-layered posture of strategic deterrence (e.g. deterring conventional attack on Chinese territory or sovereignty, deterring nuclear attack, deterring further steps toward Taiwan independence, and deterring the “three evils” of “terrorism, separatism, and extremism”). The Science of Military Strategy, published by the Chinese Academy of Military Science, the country's premier military research institute for the development of military strategy, operations, and tactics and which is directly controlled by the Central Military Commission, states:

“Demonstrating momentum by showing the disposition of the strength to the enemy is to display clearly one’s deterrent force for bringing about psychological pressure on and fear to the opponent and thus to force him to submit. Such deterrent forms as large-scale military review, joint military exercise, and military visit, etc, are usually adopted” [1].

The “enemies” that Beijing seeks to deter may be individuals or groups of terrorists, separatists, or extremists either in China or along its borders or may be state actors which challenge its sovereignty. Thus, the parade is intended for both domestic and foreign audiences. The Chinese leadership will hail it as a measure of their transparency in military affairs.

Parade Preparations Reveal Much

A Google Earth satellite image of Beijing taken in June 2009 covers the “Parade Villages” at the Tongzhou and Shahe military airfields near Beijing. The preparations and training that have been underway at these sites for five months are clearly visible even to an untrained eye. Foreign journalists have been allowed access to the Shahe “Parade Village” to observe living conditions and training for dismounted personnel marching in the parade (China Military Online, September 11).

Multiple ground and air rehearsals have been conducted along the parade route down Chang’an Boulevard and the Chinese blogosphere is abuzz with close-up photos and videos of equipment and personnel. Analysis of Google Earth imagery matched with rehearsal photographs reveals much of what will be seen on October 1st.

Earlier this year, barracks and vehicle parking lots were constructed along the main runway at Tongzhou airfield. Open unit parking lots for 30 vehicle formations are visible on the Google Earth imagery. At the time of the image, nine units were on the runway assembling or practicing driving in formation. The standard formation seen in 1999, four rows of vehicles with four columns led by two vehicles (for a total of 18 vehicles per formation) is evidenced once more on the runway.

Near the north end of the runway, perhaps the most prominent sight is the perfect formation of 18 armored personnel carriers painted white, denoting their subordination to the PAP. Main battle tanks, armored fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, and ballistic and cruise missiles of the Second Artillery are all recognizable on the runway and parked in open lots.

Among the parked vehicles, many formations are green (generally indicating Army units) and four can be seen to be blue (indicating Navy, Marines, Air Force, or Airborne). In addition to the 18 vehicles that will drive in the parade, each unit has a few spares in case of maintenance problems.

The Second Artillery contingent is seen at the southern end of the airfield. Five types of missile systems can be seen: 19 DF-11 short-range ballistic missiles, 19 DF-15 short-range ballistic missiles, 19 DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles, 14 DF-31/31A intercontinental ballistic missiles, and 19 DH-10 cruise missiles. (There has been no sighting yet of the new JL-2 SLBM, which is eventually expected to be deployed to the Navy.) Significantly, the 14 DF-31/31As present at the airfield comprise a very large percentage of the total number of DF-31/31As deployed. According to the 2009 National Air and Space Intelligence Center report on the “Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat,” less than 15 of each of the DF-31 and DF-31As have been deployed.

While, like the Chinese say, the weapons on display have been made in China (albeit some under license from Russia and France), it is evident from the rehearsal photographs that more than half of the systems are the same as or modifications or upgrades of weapons seen in the 1999 parade. Unlike previous parades, however, communications and logistics support vehicles will also participate.

The 12 formations of aircraft to over-fly Beijing will include China’s newest fighter, the J-10, other fighters and fighter-bombers (J-8, J-11, and JH-7), airborne refuelers, early warning and control aircraft, and multiple types of helicopters.

Many of the weapons in the parade are considered “assassin’s mace” (shashoujian) weapons in the Chinese literature. However, the fact that so many different types of weapons from all services, to include communications and logistics vehicles, are included in the parade represents Chinese military doctrine that calls for all weapons, new and old, to be integrated into campaigns. “Assassin’s mace” weapons will be used in joint campaigns with other elements of firepower, mobility, and special operations integrated with systems to prosecute electronic and information war. Yet, according to PLA doctrine, “information warfare is a means, not a goal” [2].

The Parade and Military Organization and Training

Whether or not the new equipment has been seen officially in public before, military enthusiasts and analysts inside and outside of China have been monitoring the status of nearly every weapon (if not all of them) in the parade. Long before the parade rehearsals, websites such as the excellent SinoDefence.com had photos and specifications for the majority of Chinese gear to be seen in the parade.

The appearance of equipment in the parade says nothing conclusive about how widespread it has been deployed to the force. For example, the Type 96 and Type 98/99-series main battle tanks were both seen in 1999. Only 10 Type 98 tanks led eight Type 96s in a mixed formation suggesting there were only 10 Type 99s deployed within the whole of the PLA at that time (a second formation composed entirely of 18 Type 96s preceded the mixed formation in the 1999 parade). This year a full formation of 18 Type 99 will be followed by a second formation of 18 Type 96 series tanks. Currently only about 200 Type 98/99 series tanks are estimated to be deployed to the force, but some 1,500 Type 96-series are found in units throughout the country. These two most advanced main battle tanks make up less than one-third the 6,700 tanks in the PLA (total number found in the 2009 Department of Defense Report to Congress).

This year, much larger formations of Second Artillery missiles will be paraded as compared to the 1999 performance. At that time, nine each of the early models of DF-11 and DF-15s, six DF-21s, and three DF-31s were included. Despite it making a showing at the 1999 parade, according to the 2009 Department of Defense Report to Congress, the DF-31 was not deployed operationally until some seven years later in 2006.

Full formations of these ballistic missiles (perhaps ranging from 12-18 missiles depending on type), as well as the recently deployed DH-10 land-attack cruise missile, will be in the parade.

However, the numbers of each type of missile seen in the parade do not correspond to the actual numbers of missiles found in operational units.

Again according to the Department of Defense Report to Congress, 700-750 DF-11s, 350-400 DF-15s, 60-80 DF-21s, and 150-350 DH-10s missiles are in PLA units (the number of each type of launcher is usually less than the number of missiles available).

The set-piece parade formations of personnel, vehicles, and aircraft also provide no insights into how the PLA has restructured itself over the past decade. The structure of army divisions has been modified; new brigades have been created (many from former divisions). The mix of equipment in the parade does not provide any clue to how these divisions and brigades are organized.

What is more important is that the parade does not reveal how well-trained the troops are to actually use these weapons. While marching or driving in precise formations is rigorous work requiring a high degree of discipline and stamina, the parade formations have absolutely no tactical value or relevance to how units actually move, shoot, and communicate in battle or are integrated into larger systems-of-systems necessary for modern war.

Parade personnel and equipment will miss an entire season of unit field training. Yet the impact is greater than just for the personnel and equipment involved in the parade. In order to assemble sufficient soldiers of the proper height, many subordinate units in the larger organization will have to contribute personnel to create a detachment of the proper size to march in the parade. Units also must send clerks, cooks, medics, and mechanics to support the marchers. Parent units can consolidate those left behind for training or train at less than full-strength, but the parade will have an impact on many units’ annual training schedules.

Conclusions

The individuals and units involved in the execution of the parade can rightfully be proud of their accomplishments. It will be no small maintenance accomplishment to get so many pieces of military equipment to complete the route without breakdown after months of slow formation driving. Participation undoubtedly increases unit esprit and confidence in the soldiers and their leaders. Many small unit leaders will likely have improved their own leadership skills to motivate subordinates during what certainly have been trying times during parade practice. The logistics effort to support this commitment also gives the units experience at operating away from their home bases (even if in nice barracks along airfields). Therefore, some benefits accrue from this event, but these intangibles say little about the warfighting or “military operations other than war” capabilities of the Chinese armed forces.

No judgment about Chinese military capabilities can be rendered simply by watching this parade. And more importantly, based on the weapons on display no judgment can be rendered as to the Chinese intention behind the deployment of these weapons. The best that can be said is that these weapons are inventory—but from the parade itself, we do not know how many have been deployed into units or if the units have developed personnel capable of planning for their employment, operating them to their maximum effectiveness, and supporting them in the field under the stress of combat.

The 60th anniversary parade is one milestone in China’s long-term, multi-faceted military modernization process. It will be major morale boost for the force and a source of national pride for the Chinese public, but the parade should not be misinterpreted by attributing unwarranted intentions to this single event.

Notes

1. Peng Guangqian and Yao Youzhi (eds), The Science of Military Strategy, Beijing: Military Science Publishing House, 2005, p. 223.
2. The Science of Campaigns. National Defense University Press, both 2000 and 2006 editions make these points.

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Marching to world domination: China celebrates 60 years of communism with a display of military might that should worry the West


China today celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.

Tiananmen Square became a hi-tech stage to celebrate the birth of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, with President Hu Jintao, wearing a slate grey 'Mao' suit, and the Communist Party leadership watching the meticulously disciplined show from the Gate of Heavenly Peace over the Square. Here DOMINIC SANDBROOK explains why the West should be so wary of the new superpower.

By Dominic Sandbrook
Last updated at 1:34 PM on 01st October 2009

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The bunting is out, the streets have been cleared, the troops are making their final preparations, and even the massive portrait of Mao on the Tiananmen Gate seems to wear a more self-satisfied expression than usual.

Today, China will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule with flowers, fireworks, performances and a huge military parade which will celebrate the country's new-found military might.
The regime has come an enormously long way in six decades, from a society of peasant collective farms, hidden from the world behind a veil of secrecy, to the world's fastest-growing economy, an industrial and military superpower-in-waiting.

Enlarge
The first tank phalanx receives inspection in a parade of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on Chang'an Street in central Beijing

But beneath today's orgy of celebrations that marks the anniversary lurks a disturbing reality. Mao's successors may have embraced cut-throat capitalism to a degree that makes even Western economists blanch. But the arrangements for the parade are a reminder that China remains a deeply authoritarian society.
Kites have been banned from the centre of Beijing, pigeons have been culled and soldiers with machineguns are on every street corner. Scientists are even seeding the sky with chemicals to prevent inclement weather spoiling the celebrations.

More...

• Beijing lockdown: Security lines the streets as city gears up for military parade to mark six decades of Communist Party rule
• North Korea calls time on Communism as ideals are 'hard to fulfil'

Tibet has also been closed off to foreigners for the duration - a reminder of China's expansionist ambitions, and of the threat it could pose to world peace in years to come.
Since Chinese history is rarely taught in our schools and universities, it is not surprising that most Britons have only the foggiest notion of what goes on in the world's most populous nation.

Yet when historians look back, it is a safe bet they will see China's rise to power as one of the defining stories of the last century, perhaps eclipsing even the Cold War.

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A mass parade including 200,000 performers and representatives of each wing of the armed forces showing off its latest weaponry passes through Tiananmen Square

When the Communists seized control in 1949, China was a poverty-stricken basket case, ravaged by famine, ethnic tension and feuding between rival warlords.

And in the years that followed, Mao's policies of forced industrialisation and collective farming, as well as his murderous purges of the middle classes, accounted for millions of deaths.

One scholarly estimate suggests that in 40 years, almost 80 million Chinese were slaughtered or died as a result of government policy - making the regime the biggest killer in history.

But now, of course, all that is conveniently forgotten. And British politicians are more likely to pay tribute to China's economic renaissance than to draw attention to the undemocratic brutality of its Communist regime.

There is no doubt that the facts and figures are extraordinary.

Thanks to the regime's embrace of capitalism, China's poverty rate has fallen from 53 per cent to just 8 per cent over the past 20 years.

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China's President Hu Jintao stands on a limousine to inspect the military parade near Tiananmen Gate. A giant portrait of Mao can be seen behind

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China's President Hu Jintao, fifth from left, flanked by former president Jiang Zemin, fifth from right, top legislator Wu Bangguo, fourth from left, Premier Wen Jiabao, fourth from right, and other leaders, applauds as they watch the celebrations.

And thanks to its low labour costs, it has become the world's third-largest trading power - which is why when you turn over so many manufactured goods, the words 'MADE IN CHINA' stare up at you.
Once a peasant society, it has the largest number of mobile phone users in the world and the largest number of broadband consumers. It has some of the world's biggest and fastest-growing cities - vast metropolises such as Tianjin, Wuhan and Guangzhou, which are almost unknown in the West but boast populations of more than four million each.

And almost unnoticed, it has become the world's biggest acquirer of foreign public debt.

With some $800 billion of U.S Treasury securities, China now has a hold over the American economy that would have seemed unthinkable a few decades ago.

At one level, of course, all this is cause for celebration. For centuries, China led the world economically, culturally and technologically.

It was the Middle Kingdom, the world's most cohesive and enduring society, which pioneered not just the compass, gunpowder and printing, but porcelain, paperback books and a medieval postal service that would put today's Royal Mail to shame.

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Chinese People's Liberation Army air force jets and helicopters fly in formation over Beijing's central business district
None of us, in other words, should begrudge an industrious and innovative people their return to the top table.

Yet there is a dark side to China's revival - a disturbing instinct for sabre-rattling and neo-imperialism that arguably poses the biggest threat to world peace since the Cold War.

What we often forget about China is that it is not an ordinary nation-state like any other. It is a rigid, highly militarised and intensely nationalistic empire, in which 1.2 billion Han Chinese dominate dozens of other ethnic groups, by force if necessary.

The mountain kingdom of Tibet, for example, was seized at gunpoint in 1950, and its brutal occupation remains a black stain on China's record. And in the remote far western region of Xinjiang - once known as Chinese Turkestan - ethnic tensions have surfaced in bloody fashion in the past few months.

Sixty years ago, Xinjiang was home to the Turkic Uyghur people, most of them Muslim peasants, craftsmen and silk weavers. But since the Communist Revolution, millions of Han Chinese settlers have poured into the region, responding to government economic incentives.

As a result, traditional Uyghur shops, mosques and bazaars have been torn down and replaced with bland Han-owned malls and offices. And when tension spilled over into ethnic violence earlier this summer, the authorities were quick to blame Uyghur 'terrorists' - even though their own ruthless colonialism clearly lay at the heart of the trouble.

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People watch Chinese People's Liberation Army helicopters fly in formation over Beijing's railway station during today's parade
What terrifies China's neighbours is the thought that they might be in for the same treatment as Tibet and Xinjiang. And the most obvious target for Chinese expansion is the island of Taiwan, the self-styled 'Republic of China' that was established after the American-backed Kuomintang lost the civil war against Mao in 1949 and fled across the narrow Taiwan Strait.

Even though Taiwan now stands as a highly successful state in its own right, the Chinese Communists have never abandoned their ambition to incorporate it into their empire.

And what is more, any government wanting diplomatic relations with China has to forgo relations with Taiwan and formally accept the 'One China' policy - a kind of blackmail to which Britain and the United States. have shamefully acceded.

But China's horizons extend well beyond the Taiwan Strait. Although Chinese spokesmen insist that it has no imperialistic ambitions, the list of border disputes that might provide a pretext for war - the Sudetenlands of the future, perhaps - is disturbingly long.

China currently has territorial disputes with Japan, both Koreas, Bhutan, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as one of the world's most enduring and most dangerous border disputes with India, which could easily bring two nuclear powers to the brink of war.

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Female soldiers march past Tiananmen Square during the military parade

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Women members of the militia, a civilian reserve force under China's military, salute as they march past Tiananmen Square
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Participants hold heart-shaped balloons duringthe parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary

Perhaps most worrying, however, is the evidence of Chinese expansionism and interference in Africa.

In 1873 the Victorian explorer Sir Francis Galton suggested that one way to modernise the so-called Dark Continent was to fill it with ' industrious, order-loving Chinese', with Africa becoming a 'semi-detached dependency of China'. Such was the outcry that Galton soon dropped the idea. But more than a century later, he seems to have been ahead of his time.
For in the past decade, more than 750,000 Chinese have settled in Africa, and the red flag now flutters over jungles and prairies alike.

In the ports of East Africa, Chinese cargo ships are loaded every day with oil, timber and diamonds.

Vast Chinese-owned mines pay African labourers less than £1 a day to scratch out copper for the gigantic smoke-belching cities of East Asia. And deep in the heart of Africa, acres of forest are ripped down every day as timber for China's industrial revolution.

But there is another side to this new Scramble for Africa. For in return, the Chinese are selling African leaders the assault rifles, warplanes and mortars they need for their bloody wars of conquest and ethnic cleansing.

Only last year, Zimbabwe's despotic Robert Mugabe received a cool £200m in Chinese military aid.

And even the brutal slaughter in southern Sudan, in which hundreds of thousands of non-Muslim peasants were murdered by government militias, was carried out with £55m-worth of Chinese weapons, sold to the Sudanese in defiance of a UN arms embargo.

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Performers participate in the parade. It showed everything from airplanes for in-flight refuelling to intercontinental missiles as well as tens of thousands of children in brightly coloured costumes
Meanwhile, China itself is well on the way to becoming one of the world's dominant military powers. Already, its standing army alone has more than 2.25 million men.

And for the past 20 years, the Chinese have been modernising at a staggering rate - ploughing the fruits of their industrial revolution not into welfare programmes, health care or the environmental protection their people so badly need, but into guns, guns and more guns.
It is no accident that the centrepiece of the 60th anniversary celebrations in Beijing is a massive military parade.

Like so many aggressively modernising regimes before them - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union spring to mind - the Chinese leadership clearly equate economic progress with military spending. Only this week, their Defence Minister Liang Guanglie bragged that the parade would ' display the image of a military force, a civilised force, a victorious force'.

With its new J-10 fighter jets, naval destroyers and Cruise missiles, the Chinese army, he said, was a match for any in the Western world. 'This is an extraordinary achievement,' he boasted, 'that speaks of our military's modernisation and the huge change in our technological strength.

' Whenever Western observers voice disquiet about this terrifying military buildup, the Chinese insist that they have no hostile ambitions, or merely put the complaints down to racist scaremongering. But then they would say that.

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Mobile missile defence systems were part of the giant military parade.
And the evidence of their actions - their callous repression in Tibet and Xinjiang, their ruthless suppression-of dissent and free speech at home, even the violence of their bullying 'minders' during the shambolic Olympic torch relay through London last year - tells a very different story.

Of course, China's long march to world domination is by no means inevitable. As academic experts point out, their current economic miracle is built on distinctly shaky political and environmental foundations.

History suggests that any society modernising at such breakneck pace, with millions of peasants flooding from the countryside to the cities, often into low-paid jobs and jerry-built apartments, is bound to suffer enormous social and economic tensions.

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Early-warning aircraft from the Chinese People's Liberation Army air force fly in front of a formation of fighter bombers.

At some stage, the Communist Party is likely to come under intense pressure from China's growing middle classes to grant political and environmental reforms. And if the economic miracle turns sour, then the consequences for the regime could be very serious indeed.

But would this be such good news for the West? In an era of globalisation, we have become more dependent on Chinese economic success than most of us realise.

By 2010, the Government predicts, trade between Britain and China will be worth more than £35 billion to the UK. And with many British firms dependent on exports to China, families in Birmingham could suffer just as much as those in Beijing if it all goes wrong.

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Changed times: The moon rises above New York last night, as the Empire State Building is lit in red and yellow in honor of communist China's anniversary.

The truth is that we need a buoyant, successful, self- confident China. But we do not need the secretive, repressive, expansionist dragon that many experts see stirring in the Far East.

We have, after all, been here before. Seventy years after the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in human history, we should all know the dangers of appeasing territorial ambitions, of turning a blind eye to domestic repression, of naively swallowing the propaganda of an authoritarian regime.

The year 1939 is now etched in our collective consciousness.
But unless we play our cards right - unless we use the next few years to coax China towards democracy, to push for human rights reform, and to roll back their new colonialism - then another date might loom larger in our descendants' imagination.

Within ten years, China's rulers plan to have a fully mechanised and computerised army. And within 20, the world's biggest military force could be capable of standing toe to toe with its American counterpart - especially if the U.S. economy continues to stutter and slide.
Imagine a scenario, 30 years from now, where the Western powers' resistance has been sapped by years of economic turmoil, environmental collapse and a bitter struggle for resources.

Imagine that China's Communist leadership, buoyed by decades of military spending, decide to celebrate their 90th anniversary by reabsorbing Taiwan and 'settling' their border disputes once and for all.
It is all too easy to close our eyes and wish for the best. But unless we are careful, what happens in 2039 could make 1939 look like a children's tea party.

We cannot say that we have not been warned.

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Omaha greets an 'unusual visitor' from China

By Peter J Brown

Last summer, the Washington Times reported that "an unusual visitor not seen at any formal nuclear forces facility since allegations of Chinese nuclear-weapons espionage surfaced in the late 1990s" had attended the US Strategic Command's (US STRATCOM) first-ever conference on strategic deterrence which was held in Omaha, Nebraska in late July.

US STRATCOM which is headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha oversees all aspects of US nuclear warfighting.

Senior Colonel Yao Yunzhu of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) was the "unusual visitor" in this instance. Yao is currently a senior researcher at Department of World Military Studies at the Academy of Military Science (AMS). She joined the PLA in 1970. She holds a master's degree of arts from thePLA's Foreign Languages Institute, and a PhD in military science from the AMS - the first woman in China to earn a doctorate in this field of study.

All attempts to contact Yao via China's Ministry of Defense after the conference were unsuccessful. However, a brief yet cordial reply from Yao finally came from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University where she is currently a fellow - she previously spent a year at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Yao's e-mail included a reminder that any contact she might have with the media required prior authorization from Beijing.

In early October, Asia Times Online was among the first news organizations to obtain a copy of the official transcript of Yao's remarks in Omaha, and this writer immediately detected errors in this document. US STRATCOM was informed of these errors, and yet after a review of the audiotape one more time, the transcript was deemed accurate. Two days later, however, after viewing the videotape of her presentation which had better sound quality, US STRATCOM admitted that the recommended changes to the transcript were necessary.

This revised transcript is mentioned because Yao's remarks have generated lots of media attention in the past. For example, during a dinner held in early 2007 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, she became the first Chinese military officer to comment publicly about the controversial 2007 Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) test. Previously, only the Chinese Foreign Ministry had issued brief statements about the ASAT test.

The Associated Press reported that she said, "My wish is we really want to keep space as a peaceful place for human beings." She went on to add that China would like all countries to come to a consensus that space should be used only for peaceful purposes - "But personally, I'm pessimistic about it," said Yao. "My prediction: Outer space is going to be weaponized in our lifetime."

Now, given what happened in Omaha, there is some validity to the idea that in Davos, what she really meant to say was that weapons in space were inevitable unless the international community made a very serious effort to do something about the situation. China's efforts - along with Russia - to promote a United Nations convention banning weapons in space are very consistent and visible. The US has blocked this effort. It is highly unlikely that Yao and her views on weapons in space would somehow fail to accurately reflect this stance which the Chinese government advocates.

Richard Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Washington DC, met Yao in China several years ago. He stressed that the January 2007 ASAT test followed two or three previous Chinese ASAT tests. Therefore, what Yao may or may not have said in Davos about space weapons does not really matter.

"This amounts to the use of 'moral equivalence' to justify what is likely a long-standing PLA decision to develop active outer space military capabilities. On this subject and on other aspects of China's intentions with respect to strategic weapons, it is my sense that Yao knows far more than she is permitted to reveal," said Fisher.

So why was Yao in Omaha? US Air Force General Kevin Chilton, commander of US STRATCOM, simply wanted a PLA representative to participate in this symposium, and she was selected by her PLA superiors to attend.

Chinese military officers cannot visit "sensitive US facilities, including facilities involved in nuclear-weapon and power-projection capabilities", according to the Washington Times. However, Yao's trip took her to the Quest Center which is in downtown Omaha, so she never actually visited US STRATCOM headquarters. In fact, no PLA officer has ever been to US STRATCOM headquarters, according to a US STRATCOM spokesman. General Jing Zhiyuan, commander of China's nuclear forces, has been invited to visit there, but he has not accepted so far.

"General Chilton is a strong proponent of military-to-military engagement and dialogue and as such, has invited Chinese military representatives to engage in several symposia, notably the recent Deterrence Symposium," said this spokesman. "We anticipate additional engagements and dialogue in the future."

Dr Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager for the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientist's Global Security Program, is quite familiar with Yao's work, and he is not surprised that she was designated to attend this conference in Omaha. She is frequently invited to international conferences because her overall command of the English language is unusual for a senior Chinese military officer.

"She is a prolific author, who can write in English, and who submits her work for publication in English-language journals," said Kulacki. "And, most importantly, she is a very well-read scholar, diligent in her research and insightful in her analysis."

Yao quickly registered on the US diplomatic radar screen years ago after a conversation with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger which was widely reported in the press.

"Kissinger is a highly respected figure in China. His praise for her response to his question elevated her profile," said Kulacki.

Yao attracted considerable attention again months after her ASAT remarks in Davos when she openly questioned US Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a regional defense forum in Singapore in mid-2007. This was Gates' first trip to Asia and the unusual assertiveness of the entire PLA delegation created quite a buzz at this forum. The delegation was headed by Lieutenant-General Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of the PLA General Staff.

Yao asked Gates, "Do you think there are still any Cold War approaches that are valid or relevant in coping with US concerns about China in general and about the Chinese military in particular? Also, do you think there are other approaches, post-Cold War approaches, that the United States should adopt in dealing with multilateral relations between China and the United States?"

"The years-long negotiations [with the USSR] played an extraordinarily valuable role in creating better understanding on both the Soviet and American sides about what the strategic intentions of each side were; what the strategic thinking was; what their motives were; where they were headed ... That kind of dialogue, whether or not it involves specific proposals for arms control or anything else, is immensely valuable. It is one of the great assets of the developing military-to-military dialogue between the United States and the People's Republic [of China]," Gates said.

The US Armed Forces and China's PLA have fundamentally different military command structures which impacts these engagements and exchanges, according to Kulacki. The US military has a single commander-in-chief, while the PLA is governed by China's Central Military Commission, and the US president has greater latitude in directing these exchanges than the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, who chairs the Central Military Commission.

This difference shapes the perceived prerequisites and expectations of both sides "in ways that are inhibiting progress", according to Kulacki. United States military officials who conduct the exchanges have greater decision-making latitude than their Chinese counterparts. China and the US have different objectives, too.

"China wants the exchanges to contribute to an improved political climate that benefits the broader US-China relationship. They are part of a larger, political strategy directed by the Party leadership. The US wants the exchanges to produce working relationships on crisis management, and to facilitate communication at lower levels of the command structure," said Kulacki.

According to Fisher, China's objective here is to make sure that all military engagement remains in China's favor.

"Think-tanks and academies [which are part] of the PLA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of State Security often deploy 'academics' to US and other foreign universities. I know of no rigorous assessment of this practice, but I would be willing to bet their understanding of us has benefited far more than our understanding of them," said Fisher

In Omaha, Yao sat on a panel with the Russian ambassador to the US as well as senior active duty and retired military officers from Pakistan, India and France.

In her concluding remarks, Yao stated that "there are still some factors which complicate China's nuclear calculations".

She pointed out that China has three new nuclear neighbors, and that tension across the Taiwan Strait might draw the China and the US into a nuclear confrontation. As for the development and deployment of US ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems, she was quite clear.

"[This] threatens the credibility of China's deterrence based on a very small arsenal and threatens the strategic stability between the United States and China," she said. Later on, she added that the US BMD system, "may result in a re-assessment of force components and force size but not in the abandonment of a policy which has served China's national interests for nearly half a century".

Yao's comments on the development and deployment of a US BMD system is what perplexed this writer, and triggered the above-mentioned corrections to the transcript. According to Kulacki, after the dust settled, Yao did not say anything new.

"China's strategy presumes nuclear weapons cannot actually be used. They are psychological weapons, used to coerce and influence behavior, not to fight and win wars," said Kulacki.

"In this case, what China needs is a force just large enough to give anyone thinking of using nuclear weapons to attack China an assurance that they can and will retaliate. Missile defenses are a threat to a small force like China, because they can be used to mop up whatever might be left after a first strike. China is modernizing and slightly increasing numbers [maybe] in order to leave that doubt about invulnerability in the minds of adversaries."

For this and other reasons, it certainly seems as if these exchanges are a very sound idea.

"Barring another round of arms sale or a decision to go ahead with the October 2008 sale [to Taiwan] by the [Barack] Obama administration, I think these exchanges will proceed, albeit at a very slow pace," said Dr Jing-dong Yuan, director of the East Asia Non-proliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, and associate professor of International Policy Studies at the California-based Monterey Institute of International Studies. "This relationship is most fragile, but at the same time also most important to nurture and promote given the stakes."

Yao has an important role to play here as one of China's most eloquent participants in what will certainly be a very difficult and delicate series of discussions.

"I have met her once. She seems to be one of the people that the PLA has developed to interact with Westerners on these issues. She accurately reflects a point of view within the Chinese military," said Dr Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Non-proliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation in Washington DC, is the author of Minimum Means of Reprisal: China's Search for Security in the Nuclear Age, who added that these "exchanges have developed slowly, but that is to be expected. This is a very difficult process."

Yuan cautions that things will not get any easier over the coming months.

"The [US Nuclear Posture Review] later this year or early next and the Pentagon report on the Chinese military [due out] next spring will pretty define how the US views China in military terms; this will also incur Chinese reactions, depending upon the contents of these reports," said Yuan.

Chances are that Yao may be asked to explain those reactions.

Peter J Brown is a freelance writer from the US state of Maine.

(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

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Top Chinese general to visit US: Pentagon

2 hrs 39 mins ago



WASHINGTON (AFP) – China's second-ranking military officer will travel to Washington later this month on a week-long visit designed to promote trust and avoid "misunderstandings," the Pentagon said Wednesday.

General Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army central military commission, will hold high-level meetings from October 24-31 and visit military commands and bases across the United States, press secretary Geoff Morrell told a news conference.

Since Defense Secretary Robert Gates paid a visit to China two years ago, the Chinese official "has been committed to fostering a better and deeper strategic dialogue with that country, especially better trust and transparency between our two militaries," Morrell said.

Gates "has been pushing for quite some time to have this kind of visit," he said.

"The more transparency there is, the more dialogue that goes on, the less chance there is for a misunderstanding between two very formidable powers on the world's stage," Morrell said.

China is in the midst of a drive to modernize its armed forces and has announced large military budget increases in recent years, prompting US officials to question Beijing's intentions.

The two nations also experienced a series of standoffs involving Chinese vessels and US navy ships in waters off China earlier this year.
China cut military exchanges with the United States for months last year over a proposed 6.5-billion-dollar US arms package to Taiwan, but agreed to resume them in February.

Since then, the two countries have held several rounds of military talks.

During his tour, the Chinese general was due to visit sites from all the US armed services, including the US Naval Academy in Maryland, US Strategic Command in Nebraska, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the US Army's Fort Benning in Georgia, the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego and US Pacific Command in Hawaii, Morrell said.

"We will show him a great deal of how our military operates in this country," he added.

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China’s Unmanned, Knock-Off Air Force

• By Noah Shachtman
• October 15, 2009 |
• 8:13 am |

America’s robotic air force gets all the attention — especially with U.S. drones continuing to blast suspected militants in Pakistan. But China is developing its own fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. High-flying spy drones, unmanned attackers, and handheld mini-bots are in Beijing’s arsenal.

DefPro has a rundown of China’s UAV programs. Many of them appear to be knock-offs of U.S. drones. The Xianglong (”Sour Dragon”) is shaped like the American Global Hawk, and is supposed to fly almost as high: 60,000 feet. The Yilong looks awfully like one of those Predators the U.S. is now flying over Pakistan.

“China’s copycat tradition goes back to the 1960s,” Defense News notes. “Recovered U.S. AQM-34N Firebee drones lost over China and North Vietnam led to the production of the WZ-5 Chang Hong, which ironically may have seen service during China’s 1979 invasion of Vietnam.”Not all of the Chinese drone projects are rip-offs, however. As DefPro observes…

The “Dark Sword” is an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) concept which was displayed as a model at the 2006 Zhuhai air show. It is obviously designed for high manoeuvrability at supersonic speeds, having a flat, triangular shape with an additional large wing area and swing canards…

At the Zhuhai air show, a staff member called the aircraft the “future of Chinese unmanned combat aviation”, emphasising its projected ability to evade enemy radar and to engage in air-to-air combat.

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US admiral concerned about China military buildup

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ (AP) – 8 hours ago

HONG KONG — A U.S. Navy admiral expressed new concern Friday over China's military buildup and urged Beijing to be clearer about its intentions.

With China's military growing at an "unprecedented rate," the U.S. wants to ensure that expansion doesn't destabilize the region, Rear Adm. Kevin Donegan told reporters on a visit to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

Donegan referred to China's expanded weaponry. His remarks echoed the concerns of other U.S. military leaders who have said the growth in China's military spending — up almost 15 percent in the 2009 budget — raises questions about how Beijing plans on deploying its new power.

"When we see a military growing at that rate, we're interested in transparency and the understanding of the uses of that military," said Donegan, commander of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier strike group, a key part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Donegan's comments come as a top Chinese general visits the United States on a mission to strengthen trust between the two militaries and dispel U.S. concerns about the growth of the People's Liberation Army.

Xu Caihou, the PLA's second-highest ranking officer, told President Barack Obama on Wednesday that ties between the two countries' militaries play "an important role in enhancing strategic mutual trust and deepening their pragmatic cooperation," according to Chinese media reports.

China has boosted military spending by more than 10 percent annually for almost two decades, and the official figure of $71 billion this year is thought by many analysts to represent only a portion of total defense spending. It still amounts to only a fraction of U.S. defense spending.

China says much of the increase is used to improve salaries and living conditions for soldiers, but it has also been adding sophisticated new warships, submarines, fighter jets and other weapons systems to its arsenal. PLA leaders have also said they are considering building an aircraft carrier, but such a development is thought to be years, if not decades, away.

Donegan acknowledged the possibility of a Chinese aircraft carrier, but also said he was concerned with anti-access weapons. This class of weapons includes missiles and submarines that can threaten U.S. forces in the region and prevent them responding in the event of a crisis.

"I am absolutely concerned," Donegan said.

He went on to say, "When a navy is doing that, we just want to make sure it's transparent enough so those in the region understand what they're doing."

At the same time, Donegan described positive exchanges between the two militaries that he said he hoped would continue, including a visit by five Chinese army generals aboard the George Washington during its call in Hong Kong this week.

Ties between the two militaries have been repeatedly roiled by China's objections to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as its own territory, as well as Chinese efforts to disrupt Navy surveillance missions off its shores.

A series of confrontations involving vessels from the two navies has raised concerns over China's rising determination to defend what it sees as its territorial interests in the South China Sea, where the U.S. has long operated as the major international power.

Donegan said the Navy would continue to operate in international waters — something that could come in defiance of Beijing's claims it has the right to bar surveillance work inside its exclusive economic zone.

"We are going to continue to operate in the South China Sea and international waters and not in territorial seas of another country," he said.

The visit of the George Washington, considered the crown jewel of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, is its first to Hong Kong in its 17-year history.

Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen contributed to this report from Beijing.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Maritime Multilateralism: China's Strategy for the Indian Ocean

Publication: China Brief Volume: 9 Issue: 22
November 4, 2009 01:45 PM Age: 47 min
Category: China Brief, Foreign Policy, Military/Security, China and the Asia-Pacific, South Asia, Home Page
By: Vijay Sakhuja



The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tirelessly working to dispel the ‘China threat’ perception, which appears to be increasing concomitantly with the country's rapid economic and military rise. Beijing argues that China's growing initiatives in the Indian Ocean are for 'peaceful purposes' (China.org.cn., June 3). Yet, in recent years, many China watchers in India have captured another side of Beijing's foray that depicts China carving into the Indian Ocean's security architecture by regular incursions into the region and the recent naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy. These initiatives appear based on a strategy that pivots on energy sea-lane security, which can be broadly characterized by the ‘string of pearls’ theory, ‘Malacca dilemma’, sale of military hardware at friendly prices to Indian Ocean littorals, maritime infrastructure developments in Pakistan (Gwadar), Sri Lanka (Hambantota), Bangladesh (Chittagong), road/energy pipeline networks and electronic surveillance installations in Myanmar (Burma). The thrust of these traditional security and economic initiatives are complemented by naval diplomacy involving maritime multilateralism with Indian Ocean littorals, which Chinese leaders believe can facilitate the regional perceptions that China's intent in the region is benign. Indeed, these goodwill visits and naval exercises by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) are an important tool to further China’s attempts to portray its presence in the Indian Ocean as benign. It has effectively created conditions to develop a broad and substantive agenda for building relations with other nations. In some cases, these initiatives have the potential to translate into strategic partnerships that would consolidate its presence and expand its engagements with the Indian Ocean littorals.

Multinational Naval Exercises

China’s forays in the Indian Ocean date back to 1985 when the PLAN made port calls to South Asian ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [1]. Pakistan emerged as an important partner in South Asia for China and today their cooperation covers a wide spectrum of political, economic and strategic issues including the sale and joint development of military hardware and nuclear cooperation. Both sides have also engaged in bilateral/multilateral naval exercises. Commenting on the first ever joint exercise with the Pakistani Navy held off the coast of Shanghai in 2003, Rear Admiral Xiu Ji, a Chinese navy official observed that the exercises were ‘the first [for China] with any foreign country’ (Defencetalk.com, October 21, 2003). Two years later, the second bilateral exercise was held in the Arabian Sea in November 2005 (Voanews.com, November 24, 2005). In 2007, Pakistan hosted a multinational naval exercise, Aman 2007 (Peace 2007), off Karachi and invited the PLAN to join the exercises. Beside the Pakistani Navy ships, warships from Bangladesh, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States engaged in maneuvers in the Arabian Sea (Xinhua News Agency, March 9, 2007). Interestingly, the Commander of the Chinese flotilla Luo Xianlin was designated as the tactical commander for the joint maritime rescue exercise and the PLAN missile frigate ‘Lianyungang’ was entrusted with the coordination of the exercise (Chinaview.cn, March 10, 2007). The exercises were significant since it provided the PLAN with the opportunity to coordinate complex maneuvers with other naval forces. In 2009, the PLAN once again participated in Aman 2009, which was held in the Arabian Sea, and this time it carried out exercises along with 19 foreign naval ships (Theasiandefence.com, March 17).

Although the PLAN has engaged in bilateral and multinational naval exercises, it is important to point out that deployments for multinational operations are relatively different and more complex. Conducting multinational operations involves structured communication procedures, synergy among different operational doctrines, establishing mutually agreed rules of engagement (RoE), helicopter controlling actions, and common search and rescue procedures, which the PLAN is still developing.

Shifting Geography of Peace Mission

A close partnership between China and Russia is evident in the maritime domain and rests on joint naval exercises, Chinese acquisition of Russian naval hardware including ships, submarines and aircraft and high-level naval exchanges [2]. In 1999, the two navies conducted a joint naval exercise that involved the Russian Pacific Fleet and the PLAN's Eastern Fleet (China Daily, July 8, 2004) and the 2001 joint exercises included Russian strategic bombers. Peace Mission 2005, another naval exercise involving the PLA Navy and the Russian Navy was conducted under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the six-nation security group. The exercises were conducted off the East Russian coast-Shandong Peninsula in northeastern China (News.bbc.co.uk, August 18, 2005). Peace Mission 2007 focused on counter-terrorism and was conducted on land (En.rian.ru July 24, 2007).

Interestingly, the two sides utilized their presence in the Gulf of Aden and conducted Blue Peace Shield 2009, a joint exercise involving counter piracy operations, replenishment-at-sea, and live firing (Defencetalk.com, September 18; Taiwan News, September 17). The exercise showcased Chinese intention to be more transparent in its deployment, test interoperability with foreign navies and the PLAN’s ability to engage in a range of operations in distant waters.

Engaging Straits of Malacca Littorals

China has adopted diplomacy as a tool to ally apprehensions among the Straits of Malacca littorals thus setting aside their fears that Beijing may deploy its navy in times of crisis to escort Chinese flagged vessels transiting through the Strait. Further, China is averse to any extra regional attempts to deploy naval vessels in the Strait for the safety of merchant traffic transiting. For instance, in 2000, it strongly objected to Japanese attempts to deploy vessels to patrol the Straits of Malacca where shipping had been threatened by piracy (Sspconline.org, April 11, 2005). Instead, it has offered financial and technological assistance to improve the safety and security of merchant traffic transiting the Strait of Malacca. In 2005, during the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in Jakarta, China reiterated its position of supporting the littoral states in enhancing safety and security in the Strait (Xinhua News Agency, September 7, 2005; China Brief, April 12, 2006). In 2005, China offered to finance the project for the replacement of navigational aids damaged during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the estimated cost for the project is pegged at $276,000 [3].

Benefits of Multinational Exercises for PLAN

Multinational naval operations are fast gaining higher priority in the PLAN’s strategic thinking. There are at least three reasons. The first relates to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the international disaster relief operations in Southeast Asia-South Asia. PLAN’s conspicuous absence in the operations had exposed the limitation of a rising power and its navy. As a result, China was excluded from the core group comprising the United States, Australia and India who quickly deployed their ships for relief efforts. The Chinese Navy's absence might also be attributed to its lack of experience in working with multinational forces.

The second reason for participation in multinational exercises is prospects for interoperability with international navies. Further, these operations assist the PLAN in identifying international trends in naval weaponry, gathering information on operating procedures and gaining a better understanding of the changing nature of naval warfare. The third reason is that multinational exercises help China showcase to the international naval community its military industrial prowess and PLAN technological sophistication.

Yet, China embraces selective maritime multilateralism. For instance, China did not participate in the U.S. Naval War College's International Sea Power Symposium in Newport (Bernama [Malaysia], October 1). This year's event is the 40th anniversary and provides an occasion for the heads of the world's navies and coast guards to discuss issues of mutual interest (Navy.mil, October 8). The 2009 Symposium focused on common maritime challenges and explored prospects for enhancing maritime security cooperation, including combating piracy.

Impediments to Chinese Maritime Multilateralism

Several Chinese initiatives in the Indian Ocean have stirred considerable unease among some regional powers, particularly India, which has a tendency to perceive every Chinese move in the region as a step toward its ‘strategic encirclement.’ Indian strategists have often argued that China’s naval capability is fast growing and would soon be capable of conducting sustained operations in the Indian Ocean supported by the maritime infrastructure being built in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma). Indian fears are accentuated by a suggestion by a Chinese admiral to Admiral Timothy J. Keating, then-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) of dividing the Indo-Pacific region into two areas of responsibility between the United States and China (Navyseals.com, May 6, 2007).

According to the Indian press, the Chinese naval officer stated, “You, the United States, take Hawaii East and we, China, will take Hawaii West and the Indian Ocean. Then you will not need to come to the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean and we will not need to go to the Eastern Pacific. If anything happens there, you can let us know and if something happens here, we will let you know” (Indian Express, May 15).

New Delhi has not been receptive to Chinese requests to join Indian Ocean multilateral maritime security initiatives such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and the trilateral grouping of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), which has a significant maritime component in its interactions. IONS is an initiative by 33 Indian Ocean littorals wherein their navies or the principal maritime security agencies discuss issues of maritime security, including Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster-Relief (HADR) throughout the Indian Ocean Region (Indiannavy.nic.in, February 15, 2008). The PLAN had approached the Indian Navy to ‘explore ways to accommodate Beijing as either an observer or associate member’; however, New Delhi turned down the request because, in its perspective, there was ‘no strategic rationale to let China be associated with IONS as it was strictly restricted to littoral states of the Indian Ocean’ (Indian Express, April 21).

The IBSA trilateral grouping is an offshoot of the broader South-South cooperation started in 2003. Although cooperation in the security domain was not envisaged at its inception, maritime security issues (sailing regatta, trilateral naval exercises IBSAMAR, and high-level naval exchanges) have gradually gained momentum in the discussions. China has been exploring the possibility of joining IBSA, but the fact that “IBSA’s common identity is based on values such as democracy, personal freedoms and human rights” preclude its membership (The Wall Street Journal, April 7).

In response, China craftily has attempted to dent the IBSA architecture and wean some of the actors away through bilateral political-military engagements much to the consternation of other partners. Beijing has adopted a sophisticated strategy to build-up bilateral military relations with Brazil, and Brasilia has offered to help train Chinese naval pilots on NAe São Paulo, which is a Clemenceau class aircraft carrier (China Brief, June 12). According to discussions (August 2009) that this author had with some Indian naval analysts, there are fears that the above collaboration could well be the springboard for reciprocity involving the training of Brazilian naval officers in nuclear submarine operations by the PLAN and joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean. Further, these initiatives would add to China’s power projection capability and could be the catalyst for frequent forays in the Indian Ocean.

Although the Chinese strategy of maritime multilateralism is premised on cooperative engagements, Beijing is leveraging its naval power for strategic purposes. The development of military maritime infrastructure in the Indian Ocean would provide China access and a basing facility for conducting sustained operations and emerge as a stakeholder in Indian Ocean security architecture. Maritime multilateralism has so far produced positive gains for China and would be the preferred strategy for conduct of its international relations in the future, particularly with the Indian Ocean littorals.

[The views expressed in the above article are the author’s own and do not reflect the policy or position of the Indian Council of World Affairs.]

Notes

1. John W. Garver, "China's Approaches to South Asia and the Former Soviet States" U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission, available at
www.uscc.gov/hearings/2005hearings/written_testimonies/05_07_21_22wrts/garver_john_wrts.pdf.
2. Richard Weitz, “China-Russia Security Relations: Strategic Parallelism without Partnership or Passion?” available at www.StrategicStudiesInstitute.army.mil.
3. Hasjim Djalal, “The Development of Cooperation on the Straits of Malacca and Singapore,” available at
www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/current/malacca_sympo/6.doc.

[Ryan Ruck]

Growing Chinese Military Creates Uncertainty: U.S

Oct 21, 2009

The U.S. military needs better dialogue with China to avoid "mistakes and miscalculations" given an unprecedented military expansion stoking uncertainty in the region, top U.S. defense officials said Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking days before he will receive a top Chinese military official in Washington, said Washington would "do what we can to expand our military-to-military relationship with China."

"It is in our long-term interest to develop a dialogue with the Chinese in which we share our views about our military purposes and provide greater transparency," Gates told reporters during a trip to South Korea.

"It's important that we have this kind of dialogue to prevent mistakes and miscalculations."

The new head of the U.S. Pacific Command, speaking separately in Seoul, said China's military growth had exceeded the expectations of most U.S. intelligence estimates over the past decade.

Admiral Robert Willard said his greatest concern about China was "the uncertainty with regard to the military power that they've developed over the past year, which they've developed at an unprecedented rate.

"And what it really means for the region as a whole. I think our regional partners are somewhat uncertain about it."

Willard, who assumed control of Pacific Command Monday, cited China's progress in so-called asymmetric military capabilities, including those to deny outsiders access to offshore areas.

CONFRONTATIONS

Chinese vessels have confronted U.S. surveillance ships in Asian waters repeatedly this year and Beijing has called on the United States to reduce and eventually halt air and sea military surveillance close to its shores.

Both Willard and Gates next week receive Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission.

The meeting is seen as a big step toward improving communications between the two countries' militaries. One of China's most senior military officials, Xu will tour major U.S. bases, including U.S. Strategic Command, Pacific Command.

China resumed military-to-military dialogue with the United States this year, after halting it in 2008 in protest at a $6.5 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

Willard said dialogue with China had repeatedly suffered over policy differences.

"They have chosen to use mil-to-mil as a kind of a switch with the United States when our governments have differences over issues, or when there are sensitive issues on hand," he said.

"So we're recommencing mil-to-mil dialogue now ... I'll look forward to the opportunity to engage."

Last month, U.S. intelligence agencies singled out China as a challenge to the United States because of its "increasing natural resource-focused diplomacy and military modernization."

[Ryan Ruck]

US Military Leader: China's Army Still Secretive

October 2, 2009

The top US military commander in the Pacific has lamented the continuing secrecy of the Chinese army.

Admiral Timothy Keating said the closed lines of communication between China and the rest of the world could increase the risk of a serious military incident.

Last month, Adml Keating reached out to China's leaders, offering the prospect of joint military exercises between the US and China. "We are anxious to engage with them at the earliest opportunity," he said. "We want to understand much better than we do now China's intentions".

"We're watching them," said Adml Keating. "We're paying close attention. But I don't view China as a threat. We don't want them to view us as a threat."

It seems, however, that his proposals for greater openness have been met with a cool response. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the only time that lines of communication were open with the Chinese were in dealing with disaster relief.

"I don't know that I'd be able to get hold of [them] in the same fashion in a very timely manner if there was some conflict [we] could perhaps address and forestall unpleasantries that might follow," he said.

"I don't have their [senior Chinese military officials'] phone number.

I can't pick up the phone and wish them happy birthday," he said. "I don't mean to be glib about it...[But] we don't enjoy the sort of communication that I have with almost every other military leader in Asia."

Adml Keating spoke as China paraded its military strength in Beijing in a celebration of 60 years of Communist Party rule. Tens of thousands of soldiers marched through Tiananmen Square, followed by a range of tanks and nuclear missiles, and a fly-by by Chinese jet fighters.

The US command of the Pacific is being eroded by an increasingly assertive Chinese navy, especially around the Taiwan Strait. In recent months there have been a range of incidents involving US spy ships tracking Chinese nuclear submarines.

Adml Keating stood firm on US surveillance, however, saying: "Whether we do [reduce surveillance activities] or not will be our decision... [and] not due to any pressure from China."

[vector7]

China report to be released by Pentagon

Title of delayed study shows Obama's use of 'soft power'

By Bill Gertz
-
The Washington Times
6:32 p.m., Sunday, August 15, 2010


**FILE** Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates (left) and Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, listen to national anthems at an Oct. 27, 2009, welcome ceremony at the Pentagon. (Associated Press)

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The Pentagon this week will release its long-delayed annual report to Congress on China's military with a new title that officials say reflects the Obama administration's conciliatory, "soft power" approach to world affairs.

The Pentagon notified the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Friday that the report, which was due to Congress on March 1, will be released Monday after a closed-door briefing for staff members.

The report, formerly called the "Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People's Republic of China," has been renamed the "Annual Report on Security Developments Involving China," according to congressional and defense officials.

The Obama administration has sought to reorient U.S. foreign and security policies by seeking to play down U.S. military power, a policy known as soft power. The policy has been applied to China, Russia and Iran with few matching conciliatory policies from those states.

The congressional briefing on the new report is set for Monday and will be led by Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant defense secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, and include officials from the Joint Staff, Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department.

The unclassified report also contains a classified annex and will outline China's large-scale military buildup that has been based on double-digit annual spending increases by Beijing.

Details of the latest report remain "close hold" until its formal release, set for Monday afternoon.

A defense official familiar with the latest report said it will be based on previous annual reports and contain few new details of Beijing's development of an array of new missiles, submarines and warships.

The report is required under a 2000 law and was modeled after the Cold War-era annual Soviet Military Power reports produced by the Pentagon.

The Beijing government each year has protested the release of the report, asserting that it exaggerates China's military.

A group of former U.S. and Chinese military officials, known as the Sanya Initiative, also have lobbied successive administrations and Congress against the report, claiming the report unfairly characterizes China's military modernization.

Last month, five Republican senators wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to ask why the report was not delivered to Congress despite the fact that a draft of the report had been completed early in 2010.

They said the report was needed for the authorization and appropriations committees to determine whether U.S. force structure should be adjusted to meet the challenge of China's military buildup.

Senate Democrats also approved language in their version of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill expressing "displeasure" at the failure of the Pentagon to produce the report on time.

China's military has taken a hard line against the Pentagon in recent months, cutting off military exchanges to protest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. China's government also was angered by statements from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States is willing to mediate ongoing territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, which China is claiming as its domain.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has said he has changed his view of China's military buildup from curiosity to concern.

He said in remarks in Seoul last month that the concern is based on China's significant investment in "high-end" weaponry, including satellites, ships, missiles, anti-ship missiles and advanced warplanes.

[vector7]

Pentagon Sounds Alarm at China's Military Buildup

Published August 17, 2010 | The Wall Street Journal

• Comments (182)

AP
Aug. 4: Chinese soldiers take part in the Vanguard 2010 live-fire air defense exercise in central China's Henan Province.

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon voiced alarm over China's military buildup, saying it was expanding its advantage over Taiwan and investing heavily in ballistic and cruise missile capabilities that could one day pose a challenge to U.S. dominance in the western Pacific.

In its annual report to Congress on Chinese military capabilities, the Pentagon also cited China's advances in electronic warfare. The U.S. government has been the target of cyber intrusions the report says appear to have originated in China and aimed to steal military secrets.

"These intrusions focused on exfiltrating information, some of which could be of strategic or military utility," the report said.

Though their two countries are increasingly interlinked economically, ties between the U.S. military and the People's Liberation Army of China have deteriorated since January, when the Obama administration notified Congress of a plan to sell Taiwan up to $6.4 billion in arms.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has appealed to the Chinese to re-engage to reduce the risk of any military miscommunications. But U.S. officials say they have seen few signs of a thaw.

Washington has long voiced alarm over China's military buildup opposite Taiwan. In this year's report, which was delivered months behind schedule, the Pentagon said China's military edge over Taiwan was continuing to "shift in the mainland's favor," the main argument used by the Obama administration in approving the arms deal.

A particular concern for the U.S. is China's development of an antiship ballistic missile with a projected range of nearly 1,000 miles. The missile is meant to give the PLA the capability of attacking ships, including aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific, the report said.

[Ryan Ruck]

Pentagon Report: China Extending Military Reach

August 16, 2010

The Chinese military continues to expand its reach and capabilities beyond its immediate geographical area, a new report from the U.S. Department of Defense concludes.

The report, an annual assessment sent to Congress, notes that some of those capabilities have been positive, like humanitarian and anti-piracy efforts, but others are meant to give China "extended-range power projection."

While China's continued effort to be able to sustain military operations far from its shore are concerning to the U.S. military, "China's ability to sustain military power at a distance, today, remains limited," the report says.

As in the past, the U.S. program to sell military equipment to Taiwan continues to create tension with China and has led to cessation at times of military relations between the two countries.

The assessment notes that China has the most active ballistic and cruise missile program in the world, including developing anti-missile technology. Also of concern are Chinese efforts to develop a long-range anti-ship ballistic missile with a reach of more than 900 miles, which would include areas in which the U.S. Navy is active. Such a measure would give the Chinese military "the capability to attack ships, including aircraft carriers, in the Western Pacific Ocean," according to the report.

The Chinese could start building their first aircraft carrier this year, and China has started to train pilots to operate off such carriers. It already has a Russian carrier that it is refurbishing.

Its naval muscle is also being flexed with additional nuclear powered submarines, and it has nearly completed a navy base on Hainan Island, "with direct access to vital international sea lanes," which will allow for "stealthy deployment of submarines," the report says.

[vector7]

China building new nuke delivery system, space weapons: US

Press Trust of India, Updated: August 17, 2010 17:27 IST



Washington: China is pursuing a major military buildup in a "secretive manner" developing survivable nuclear delivery system, a 1,500 km range anti-ship missile to hit aircraft carriers and has the most active land based ballistic and cruise missile programme in the world, Pentagon has said.

Beijing is acquiring 'capabilities' to strike from a distance, warned the US Defence department, saying these moves, "increases the potential of misunderstanding" and military conflict with other nations.

In worrying new assessment, Pentagon said Beijing had developed missiles capable of striking targets in space and is also expanding its fleet of conventional and nuclear submarines to give it forces global reach.

The annual Congressional-mandated report by the Pentagon expressed concern about the lack of transparency from China into the force projection and anti-access, area denial capabilities it is acquiring.

In 2009 alone, the Pentagon said China's military-related spending was US $150 billion. While some of the increasing Chinese capabilities have been put to positive use, like humanitarian and anti-piracy efforts, the report says, China's continued effort to be able to sustain military operations far from its shore was a cause of concern to the US military.

But, it said China had still limited ability to sustain military power at a distance. "They are fast catching up", the report said, by developing an anti-ship ballistic missile that has a range in excess of 1,500 kilometres, which is intended to provide the PLA with the capability to attack ships, including aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific.

According to the report, "China has the most active land-based ballistic and cruise missile program in the world. It is developing and testing several new classes of offensive missiles, qualitatively upgrading certain missile systems and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses," a Pentagon official told reporters.

China's active ballistic and cruise missile development programme also extends over into the area of its nuclear force modernisation, where China appears to be focusing on developing more survivable delivery systems, he said.

"Turning to the maritime realm, the PLA navy has the largest force of principal combatant submarines and amphibious warfare ships in Asia. China continues to invest heavily in undersea warfare with a mixture of nuclear-powered submarines and conventionally-powered diesel electric boats.

This is complemented by investment in new surface combatants designed to improve the PLA navy's capability and capacity for anti-surface and anti-air warfare," the official said.

"In the South China Sea, China's primary interests are related to securing its extensive sovereignty claims and exploiting natural resources. A stronger military presence in the region would also position it for force projection, blockade and surveillance operations to influence critical sea lanes," the official said.

"China's investment in advanced electronic warfare systems, counterspace weapons and computer network operations reflect the emphasis and priority China's leaders place on building capability in these areas," the senior Defense official said.

"China still has much work to do to translate its aspirations into operational capabilities, but we note that China is in fact working to translate those aspirations into operational capabilities," the official said.