Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
November 18, 2006
Pg. 6
By Anne Gearan, Associated Press
HANOI -- The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest fighting force.
Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China's true spending are up to three times that level.
"There are concerns about China's military buildup," Miss Rice told a television interviewer. "It's sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role."
Beijing insists its multibillion-dollar buildup is defensive, but it has alarmed some Asian neighbors and U.S. military planners who see China as a potential threat to U.S. military pre-eminence in the Pacific.
Asked whether U.S. foreign policy toward China is aimed at containing China's ability to flex military power, Miss Rice turned the question to politics and economics.
"U.S. policy is aimed at having China be a responsible stakeholder in international politics," she replied. "That means that Chinese energy, Chinese growth, Chinese incredible innovation and entrepreneurship, would be channeled into an international economy in which everybody can compete and compete equally."
Miss Rice, in Asia with President Bush for a regional economic forum, said China's economic growth "has been a net gain for the international system." But she also ticked off a list of U.S. concerns including questions of economic fairness and China's record on human rights.
"There are concerns about a rising China, concerns about China's transition, concerns about whether the Chinese economy will in fact act in a way that is consistent with the level playing field that the international economy needs," Miss Rice said in the interview with CNBC Asia.
Mr. Bush and Miss Rice were both meeting with their Chinese counterparts during this weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
A congressional advisory panel on Thursday questioned China's willingness to be a more responsible international player, saying world prosperity depends on China's abandoning a single-minded pursuit of its "own narrow national interests."
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission made 44 recommendations in its annual report to lawmakers. It calls on the United States to combat Chinese attempts to isolate Taiwan by supporting the island's membership in various world bodies, and urges Washington to pressure Beijing to help end the bloody conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
In Beijing, meanwhile, a top U.S. naval commander said that an incident in which a Chinese submarine surfaced close to a U.S. carrier group was not threatening, but he highlighted the need for more communication and transparency between the two militaries, a top U.S. naval commander said yesterday.
China has denied a report by The Washington Times that the submarine had followed a U.S. carrier group in the Pacific Ocean and surfaced within torpedo firing range.
The potentially volatile incident came to light as Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, began a visit to China to coordinate a joint search-and-rescue exercise tomorrow aimed at strengthening ties between the two navies.
Adm. Roughead said Chinese military officials he met told him the submarine was in international waters, indicating that it was not encroaching on any territorial rights.
The submarine "was operating in a manner that did not hazard any vessel or cause any problems for any vessel," Adm. Roughead said in an interview.
The Times report said the Chinese submarine "stalked" the Kitty Hawk and surfaced within five miles of the carrier group, which had been operating near the southern Japanese island of Okinawa at the time of the incident.
Adm. William Fallon, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said this week that the carrier group was not engaged in anti-submarine exercises.
But if it had, "and if this Chinese sub came in the middle of this, then it could have escalated into something that could have been very unforeseen," said Adm. Fallon, who was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a defense meeting.c
November 18, 2006
Pg. 6
By Anne Gearan, Associated Press
HANOI -- The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army (PLA), the world's largest fighting force.
Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China's true spending are up to three times that level.
"There are concerns about China's military buildup," Miss Rice told a television interviewer. "It's sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role."
Beijing insists its multibillion-dollar buildup is defensive, but it has alarmed some Asian neighbors and U.S. military planners who see China as a potential threat to U.S. military pre-eminence in the Pacific.
Asked whether U.S. foreign policy toward China is aimed at containing China's ability to flex military power, Miss Rice turned the question to politics and economics.
"U.S. policy is aimed at having China be a responsible stakeholder in international politics," she replied. "That means that Chinese energy, Chinese growth, Chinese incredible innovation and entrepreneurship, would be channeled into an international economy in which everybody can compete and compete equally."
Miss Rice, in Asia with President Bush for a regional economic forum, said China's economic growth "has been a net gain for the international system." But she also ticked off a list of U.S. concerns including questions of economic fairness and China's record on human rights.
"There are concerns about a rising China, concerns about China's transition, concerns about whether the Chinese economy will in fact act in a way that is consistent with the level playing field that the international economy needs," Miss Rice said in the interview with CNBC Asia.
Mr. Bush and Miss Rice were both meeting with their Chinese counterparts during this weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
A congressional advisory panel on Thursday questioned China's willingness to be a more responsible international player, saying world prosperity depends on China's abandoning a single-minded pursuit of its "own narrow national interests."
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission made 44 recommendations in its annual report to lawmakers. It calls on the United States to combat Chinese attempts to isolate Taiwan by supporting the island's membership in various world bodies, and urges Washington to pressure Beijing to help end the bloody conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
In Beijing, meanwhile, a top U.S. naval commander said that an incident in which a Chinese submarine surfaced close to a U.S. carrier group was not threatening, but he highlighted the need for more communication and transparency between the two militaries, a top U.S. naval commander said yesterday.
China has denied a report by The Washington Times that the submarine had followed a U.S. carrier group in the Pacific Ocean and surfaced within torpedo firing range.
The potentially volatile incident came to light as Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, began a visit to China to coordinate a joint search-and-rescue exercise tomorrow aimed at strengthening ties between the two navies.
Adm. Roughead said Chinese military officials he met told him the submarine was in international waters, indicating that it was not encroaching on any territorial rights.
The submarine "was operating in a manner that did not hazard any vessel or cause any problems for any vessel," Adm. Roughead said in an interview.
The Times report said the Chinese submarine "stalked" the Kitty Hawk and surfaced within five miles of the carrier group, which had been operating near the southern Japanese island of Okinawa at the time of the incident.
Adm. William Fallon, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said this week that the carrier group was not engaged in anti-submarine exercises.
But if it had, "and if this Chinese sub came in the middle of this, then it could have escalated into something that could have been very unforeseen," said Adm. Fallon, who was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a defense meeting.c
