China military gaining on Taiwan, aiming beyond: US
WASHINGTON DC, United States (UPDATE) - China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia as far afield as the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said.
In an annual report to Congress, the US Defense Department said Monday that China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.
"The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland's favor," the report said.
The Pentagon said China's military build-up on the Taiwan Strait has "continued unabated" despite improving political and commercial relations since the island elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008.
Hours after the report was released, Taiwan said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" China's arms build-up.
"China has not given up the use of force against Taiwan, and we are closely monitoring China's military developments. We ask the public to rest assured," defense ministry spokesman Yu Sy-tue told AFP.
The report -- which US officials delayed for five months amid strains with China -- covered 2009, before the United States approved a 6.4 billion-dollar arms package for the island in January.
China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
The military report said China was "already looking at contingencies beyond Taiwan," including through a longstanding project to build a far-reaching missile that could potentially strike US carriers deep in the Pacific.
"Current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances and could provide China with a force capable of conducting a range of military operations in Asia well beyond Taiwan," it said.
China's military doctrine has traditionally emphasized the ability to strike within an area extending to Japan's Okinawa island chain and throughout the South China Sea east of Vietnam, the report said.
But Chinese strategists are now looking to expand their reach further to be able to hit targets as far away as Guam, including much of mainland Japan and the Philippines, it said.
China is working on the longer-range precision missile, but probably needs more work on the technical infrastructure to put the weapon into use, an official who helped draft the report said on condition of anonymity.
Japan and Vietnam, which both have historic tensions with China, have reported rising incidents with China's military in recent months.
The report predicted that China may step up patrols in the South China Sea. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month in Vietnam backed open access to the sea, triggering a rebuke by Beijing.
The Pentagon report credited China with becoming slightly more open but reiterated concerns about an overall lack of transparency.
In March this year, China said it was raising its defense budget by 7.5 percent to 532.1 billion yuan -- 77.9 billion dollars at the exchange rate at the time -- breaking a string of double-digit increases.
The Pentagon study was cautious on suggestions that China's military was partaking in national belt-tightening, saying that the spending growth may be lower simply because the forces were at the end of a five-year program.
The Pentagon paper estimated that China's overall military-related spending was more than 150 billion dollars in 2009 when including areas that do not figure in the publicly released budget.
It is still far below the US defense budget, the world's largest, which is more than 700 billion dollars in the fiscal year beginning in October.
President Barack Obama's administration has sought to broaden cooperation with China, but bilateral military exchanges were broken off after the US agreed an arms package with Taiwan that included helicopters, missile defenses and mine-sweepers.
The Pentagon said it wanted dialogue with China to avoid any "miscalculation" between the two militaries.
"We stand prepared to work with the Chinese if they are prepared to work with us," the anonymous official said. "But it only does us so much good to show up to a meeting if we're the only ones that are there."
The Taiwan arms sale did not include F-16 fighter-jets, which the island and many US analysts say are crucial to narrowing the strategic gap with Beijing.
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CAUSE OF U.S. PRESENCE:U.S.-S.Korea Joint Military Exercises
The reason the U.S. is in the area is because of the U.S.-S.Korea Joint Military Exercises, which is a result of N. Korea's sinking a S. Korean warship, Cheonan, that resulted to 46 S.Korean navymen dead last March 26, 2010. N. Korea is still denying charges, even though evidence points out that they fired a torpedo missile; thus sinking the ship.
This is supporting news article:
S.Korea, US launch massive joint war games
AFP
S.Korea, US launch massive joint war games AFP – South Korean soldiers checking a machine gun in an armoured vehicle in Seoul, as the country launched …
* South Korea Slideshow:South Korea
* South Korea, U.S. conduct drills Play Video North Korea Video:South Korea, U.S. conduct drills Reuters
* RAW VIDEO US boy plans NKorea peace trip Play Video North Korea Video:RAW VIDEO US boy plans NKorea peace trip AP
by Jung Ha-Won Jung Ha-won – Mon Aug 16, 3:49 am ET
SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea and the United States launched a new round of war games involving tens of thousands of troops in a huge show of force against North Korea, which has threatened fiery retaliation.
The 10-day exercise is the latest in a series being staged by the South -- either alone or with the United States -- after the sinking of one of its warships in March sharply raised tensions on the peninsula.
President Lee Myung-Bak, who unveiled a roadmap for the reunification of the peninsula at the weekend, described the drill as an "exercise for peace and war deterrence".
The exercise, codenamed "Ulchi Freedom Guardian" after a renowned ancient Korean general, is aimed at intercepting mock North Korean attacks using nuclear weapons, missiles and submarines, military officials said.
The North's military has threatened to "deal a merciless counter-blow" to the United States and South Korea, and denounced the exercise as a rehearsal for a full-scale "military invasion".
Pyongyang is "ready to sweep away all enemies with its arsenal," Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party newspaper, said in an angry commentary. "Those enjoying the fire are bound to be burned to death."
The exercise involves 56,000 South Korean and 30,000 US troops as well as an unspecified number of American soldiers based in the United States who will link up by computer, a spokesman for the South's Joint Chief of Staff told AFP.
"As a divided country, we need to work on the drill thoroughly, so that it will be more than just a routine exercise," President Lee was quoted by his spokesman as saying at a cabinet meeting held in an underground war room.
Lee said in a speech Sunday to celebrate Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 that South Korea would not tolerate any further military provocations by its reclusive communist neighbour.
The Koreas "need to overcome the current state of division and proceed with the goal of peaceful reunification", he said.
Tensions have been running high since the March sinking of the Cheonan with the loss of 46 lives. A multinational inquiry determined that the South Korean ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
Pyongyang has vehemently denied it was involved and fired off a barrage of threats and warnings to Seoul and its allies.
In a message posted on a US military website, General Walter Sharp, who heads the 28,500 US troops based in the South, described the exercise as "one of the largest joint staff-directed theatre exercises in the world".
Many troops will be involved in command post training, while others will take part in field drills, the South Korean defence ministry spokesman said.
In July, South Korea and the United States held a massive joint naval and air drill in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and last week Seoul staged its largest-ever anti-submarine drill near the disputed Yellow Sea border.
Tensions further escalated last week after North Korea seized a South Korean squid fishing boat operating off the east coast and fired an artillery barrage into the Yellow Sea when South Korea was wrapping up the anti-submarine exercise.
Pyongyang has ignored Seoul's calls to free the 41-ton boat and its seven crewmen including three Chinese.
"We again urge the North to take responsible actions by returning the boat and the crew as soon as possible," unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-Sung said Monday.
He also urged the North to give a quick explanation about why and how the boat was seized.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100816/ts_afp/skoreankoreausmilitary_20100...