Gates' Asia Trip Shows US Might To China

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washingtonpost.com
February 29, 2008 By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- It all began with an explosive burst of red flames.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates' weeklong trip to allied democracies in Asia and the Pacific region started with the Navy's dramatic shootdown of a U.S. spy satellite. But in a broader sense, the trip was a more subtle yet unmistakable signal to China that the U.S. is not ceding its military or diplomatic interests in the region.
Returning Thursday, Gates talked about strengthening and expanding military ties with Indonesia, India and Australia.
No mention of China. He demurred when asked if his effort to bolster relations with those other nations should be seen as a hedge against China's expanding influence.
"I don't see our improving military relationships in the region in the context of any other country, including China," he told reporters. "These expanding relationships don't necessary have to be directed against anybody."
And yet, they clearly can be.
Consider the successful downing over the Pacific of a crippled U.S. spy satellite on Feb. 20, using a Navy missile. The Pentagon wanted to destroy the fuel tank, which contained a toxic substance that U.S. officials believed posed a potential health hazard to people the satellite descended to Earth on its own.
But the shootdown delivered an unmistakable message of military might -- aimed directly at China, which conducted a similar spacecraft shootdown a year ago.
The military muscle-flexing was quickly followed by a week of high-level visits by Gates to defense officials in countries that are in the shadow of China's expanding defense capabilities yet also are being wooed by China's massive trade market.
While the timing of the events may have been largely coincidental, there is no mistaking the result.
All but overwhelmed by war-fighting commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. cannot afford to be perceived as ignoring -- or unable to focus on -- other hot spots in the world. The image of Gates, his fractured arm in a sling, trekking across the region, underscored the continued commitment the U.S. must demonstrate to the Asia-Pacific region.
The Pentagon carefully has monitored China's military modernization. In a report last year, the Defense Department asserted that the People's Liberation Army is pursuing a strategy that appears designed to give China a capability to fight wars farther from its shores and to thwart any U.S. advances.
"The expanding military capabilities of China's armed forces are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances," the report said. "Improvements in China's strategic capabilities have ramifications far beyond the Asia Pacific region."
Maintaining a military balance in the region is an essential goal for the Pentagon.
In Australia, Gates talked with officials about their country's expanded economic ties with China. He was told the U.S. should pursue a more positive dialogue with Beijing. The Australians stressed, however, that their trade with China would not hurt their strong and long-standing relationship with Washington.
In Indonesia and India, Gates discussed possible arms sales. Both countries are struggling to modernize their militaries in the face of terrorist threats and China's continued growth.
The Pentagon report said China's true defense spending is two or three times the publicly announced defense budget, which last year was put at the equivalent of $45 billion. An annual update of the report is expected this spring.
America's defense budget is still far larger. President Bush has asked Congress to approve $588 billion in Pentagon spending for the coming year. That figure includes $70 billion in money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gates said it is likely that the wars will require about $100 billion beyond that in 2009.
The current budget has $479.5 billion in Defense Department spending, and the administration has asked Congress for an additional $189 billion in projected war costs, of which $102 billion has yet to be approved.
Gates, asked what he believed he accomplished in the visits, said Thursday his aim was to strengthen and expand military relationships with the democracies that are "friends of the United States and .... are deeply involved on the international scene in a variety of ways."
Without providing specifics, he said he also thought he made progress on some agreements that could come to fruition soon.
The U.S. has pressed for a nuclear cooperation pact with India, but talks had stalled. Indonesia is looking to buy jet fighters and spare parts from the U.S. for its aging fleet.
"I think it was all about a range of issues outside the focus on Iraq and Afghanistan," Gates said as he headed back to Washington. "Basically to show we're still engaged in the range of activities that we have going with all these different countries."
 
This is gonna be real hard. The Chinese practically own the place already. They own all the money down there anyway.
 
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