China's aim: winning short, intense fights along its borders
Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies) Beijing's ambitious revamping of its military is geared towards winning short, intense fights along its borders, Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defence for international security policy, said yesterday. But despite Beijing's rapid military expansion, he stated that "conflict between our two nations is not foreordained".
Mr Rodman told a House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington the Pentagon was not "attempting to prove or disprove a China 'threat'. Our goal is to let the facts speak for themselves".
US officials want China to explain a military budget with an average annual growth rate Beijing puts at nearly 16 per cent from 1994 to 2004.
China's reported military budget this year is about US$ 35 billion, but the Pentagon estimates the actual amount is as much as US$ 105 billion, which would make China the largest defence spender in Asia.
US lawmakers are particularly worried that Beijing's military build-up might be intended to back up pledges to keep Taiwan from independence, by force if necessary. In such a case Washington has said it would provide the island the means to defend itself and has also hinted it would join a war should the mainland invade.
Mr Rodman noted that the mainland's military build-up opposite what it considers a rebel province was "tilting the military balance in the mainland's favour".
He added that the mainland had close to 800 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, with numbers increasing at about 100 missiles a year.
Japan has also not remained indifferent to China's recent military build-up. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso has called China a "military-first" country and warned Beijing will not be able to maintain its recent military build-up.
"There is no instance in history that a gigantic country has possessed two gigantic forces and still lasted long," Mr Aso said.
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