China defence budget to double over 5 years: IHS

Graphic on projected military budgets for Asian countries in 2015, topped by China at $238.2 billion, according to forecasts by global research group IHS

Chinese sailors are seen onboard a frigate berthed in Shanghai.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012
AFP

China's defence budget will double between 2011 and 2015 and outstrip the combined spending of all other key defence markets in the Asia-Pacific region, global research group IHS said on Tuesday.

China's defence budget stood at $119.8 billion last year and will rise to $238.2 billion in 2015, marking a combined annual growth rate of 18.75 percent during the period, the US-based IHS said in a forecast.

The 2015 figure exceeds the combined total of the next 12 biggest defence budgets in the region, forecast to hit $232.5 billion, and will be almost four times second-placer Japan's defence spending that year, it added.

US: China on track for modern military by 2020

08/25/2011
Reuters

WASHINGTON - China appears on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a rapid buildup that could be potentially destabilizing to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Fueled by its booming economy, China's military growth in the past decade has exceeded most U.S. forecasts. Its aircraft carrier program, cyber warfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbors and Washington.

Some China watchers, including members of the U.S. Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defense spending coincides with Washington's plans for defense cuts.

"China clearly believes that it can capitalize on the global financial crisis," said Representative Howard McKeon, adding the U.S. military presence in the Pacific must not be sacrificed in an attempt to control U.S. spending.

ASEAN talks to steer clear of controversy

Oct 8, 2010
By JOHN RUWITCH
REUTERS

HANOI: Concerns over China's maritime ambitions are likely to remain muted at an Asia-Pacific defense ministers' meeting in Hanoi next week as participants steer clear of friction to nurture a potentially useful new security forum.

China, for its part, is likely to play nice at the defense meeting and a summit in Vietnam later this month in an effort to reassure its neighbors that it can be reasonable and cooperative as the dust settles from an angry territorial row with Japan.

On Tuesday, defense chiefs from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will come to the table for the first time with eight partners — the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Carlyle Thayer, with the University of New South Wales in Australia, said success for the so-called ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus talks would be measured by the fact that "the ministers met and no one country gets singled out".

Underscoring that point, Vietnam's Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said the meeting would try to identify common interests and avoid becoming "a place for a war of words".

Vietnam this week asked for the unconditional release of nine sailors detained by China fishing near the Paracel Islands. But Vinh said that issue was not linked to the meeting and Vietnam's top priority was to have the ADMM Plus get off to a smooth start.

Beneath the surface, Vietnam and others harbor renewed concern about the hardening of China's position in long-running disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea and elsewhere, and China's recent hawkish behavior.

The South China Sea issue leapt to the fore when foreign ministers from six ASEAN members, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several others raised concerns at the last major ASEAN meeting in July, prompting a tirade from China.

China's territorial ambitions again made headlines when Beijing issued threats and effectively suspended the supply of rare earth metals to Japan after it detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japanese vessels off disputed islands.

China denied any fresh restrictions on rare earth exports.

But Susan Shirk, a China security expert at the University of California, San Diego, said China would probably want to project a calming message at the ADMM Plus and the East Asia Summit later in October.

"I expect that China will use these two meetings to reassure its neighbors and the US that despite its sharp words over the past months, it remains a responsible power interested in cooperation," she said.

On the sidelines next week, China's Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and Japan's Toshimi Kitazawa may meet to try to help soothe bilateral ties still strained by the boat incident.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was also likely to meet Liang for their first talks since China froze military ties in protest against planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Ernest Bower, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said he expected participants to try to play down US-China tension in an attempt to build up the fledgling Asian defense ministers' forum.

"I think there will be every effort to not make the Chinese feel singled out. The goal here is to build confidence," he said.

"This is really significant to the U.S. because it's the core of regional security and defense architecture for the region that will be key to solving the problem of a rising China that is feeling pretty muscular."

The 10-member ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

U.S. Criticism of China May Overshadow Asian Security Meeting

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. criticism of China’s military buildup may overshadow Asia’s biggest security forum next week after the sinking of a South Korean warship showed the potential for conflict in waters vital to world trade.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi are set to attend the Asean Regional Forum in Hanoi on July 23, where they will meet with diplomats from 24 countries and the European Union. The Asia-Pacific gathering comes as the U.S. questions China’s motives for beefing up its armed forces, with President Barack Obama’s top military adviser saying last month he’s “genuinely concerned.”

“There’s certainly been a lot of concern about China’s growing capabilities,” said Roger Cliff, an analyst at the Rand Corporation, a non-profit policy research group based in Arlington, Virginia. “By 2015, things could get quite dicey for the U.S.”

Growing potential for conflict in waters off China’s 18,000-kilometer (11,184-mile) coastline came into focus in March, when the torpedoing of a South Korean warship killed 46 sailors. After an independent inquiry blamed North Korea for the attack, the U.S. and South Korea vowed to conduct joint military exercises in the Yellow Sea.

“The drill is a threat to China’s security and risks escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula,” the state-run China Daily wrote in a July 13 editorial. “The U.S. move will be a new roadblock to the resumption of normal military ties between Beijing and Washington.”

Suspension of Ties

China, which cut off high-level military exchanges with the U.S. in January over arms sales to Taiwan, has declined to blame North Korea for the ship sinking. North Korea denies it had a role in the March 26 incident. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in Singapore last month that China’s suspension of military exchanges “makes little sense” and threatens regional security.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Obama’s top military adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke last month about the “gap” between China’s stated intent and the reality of its military programs.

“Indeed, I have moved from being curious to being genuinely concerned,” he said.

China claims Taiwan and the entire South China Sea as its own and supports Kim Jong Il’s regime in North Korea, putting it at odds with neighboring countries that depend on the U.S. Navy for security. Estimates of oil and gas reserves in the waters vary, with some Chinese studies suggesting it contains more oil than Iran and more natural gas than Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Punish Companies

China also said in January it would punish companies involved in the Taiwan arms deal, including Lockheed Martin Corp., United Technologies Corp. and Boeing Co. The threat, which has yet to materialize, represents an escalation in rhetoric compared with a previous arms sale in 2008, said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on U.S.-China relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“If we are six months from now where we are today, and we still don’t have a Gates visit and we still have suspended military exchanges, then I would say it’s a far more severe reaction,” Glaser said.

The U.S. sent three nuclear-powered submarines each capable of holding 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles to the region earlier this month, the South China Morning Post reported on July 4.

At the same time, America has stepped up engagement with former adversaries in the region. This week, the U.S. co-hosted the first large-scale military exercise in Cambodia involving field training for peacekeeping missions and welcomed the highest-level visit by a Laos government official to Washington in 35 years. It has also sought to rejuvenate long dormant military ties with Vietnam and Indonesia.

Military Buildup

China has beefed up its military over the past decade, enhancing the capability to deter U.S. ships and enforce territorial claims off its shores. Last year, Chinese fishing boats harassed two U.S. naval vessels in the South China Sea, where American forces have patrolled since World War II.

Gates called the sea “an area of growing concern” at a security forum in Singapore last month and warned against intimidation of U.S. companies operating in the area. Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc are among businesses that have halted projects in the sea because of China’s objections, according to U.S. government agencies.

“As China builds up its military power commensurate with its economic and cultural power, it may become a lot less ready to sit back and wait” for territorial disputes to be resolved, said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

Territorial Dispute

China formally disputed the claims of Vietnam and Malaysia to part of the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands when it submitted a map to the United Nations last year asserting ownership over most of the sea. Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan also claim all or part of the island chain, which may contain oil and gas reserves.

Chinese officials told U.S. counterparts in March they consider the South China Sea a “core interest” on par with Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, Kyodo News reported on July 3, citing unidentified officials. That would make the issue non- negotiable and allow China to use force to uphold its claims, said Ian Storey, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore.

“The balance of military power in the South China Sea is shifting decisively” toward China, he said. “That suggests the status quo is not sustainable.”

--Editors: Patrick Harrington, Bill Austin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

Beijing boosting military might in Asia

Fri, 07 Sep 2007
By Ali Asghar Pahlavan,
Press TV, Tehran

The Chinese Ministry of Finance has recently announced that it would issue 1.55 trillion yuan in special bonds in order to buy $200 billion in foreign currency to fund China's new military oversea expenditure.

Following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991, the United States remained the only military superpower in the world without any rival.

But the developments which occurred in recent years show that the world do not recognize the US as the sole superpower in the globe as the West attempts to secure its interests by embarking on military adventurism.

Military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq are the clear-cut examples that indicate the doctrine of Washington strategists are totally wrong in their long-term policies toward Asia and Middle East in particular.

The Vietnamization of war once again in both countries proved that gone are the days that the United States and its allies could occupy a country and dictate whatever they desire. The nations of the world by no means accept the military occupation of their country apart from the political systems ruling over their states.

Meanwhile, during the last few years, as the United States has been preoccupied with Iraq, Afghanistan and associated with flurry of other problems arising from terrorism, China by embarking on what some experts call it "soft power" diplomacy, has seized the opportunity to strengthen its military build-up.

During this period, in addition to former Soviet bloc countries, many other European states have joined NATO - the US ally in the Cold War era.

The eastward expansion of NATO forces has particularly worried Russia and China to the extent that they conducted joint military war games last month.

The closer cooperation of Central Asian countries in various areas including military ties is to the benefit of independent states as they can not tolerate the domination of West over their internal affairs any longer.

The only option left for the East is to increase its military might to confront the West in the case of any military confrontation.

At this juncture, Chinese military strategists have confirmed that they are not sitting idle to see the US strengthen its foothold in Asian states.

In fact, the current pace of arms race pressing ahead in eastern Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea, is taking place following US exaggeration of depicting China as a giant military superpower threatening Asian states.

Against this backdrop, China repeatedly has foiled the US ploy by reaching peaceful agreements with Asian countries, especially the members of ASEAN in order to promote economic relations with this organization, stressing that Beijing is stepping up efforts to upgrade its economic cooperation not only with eastern Asian countries, but also with the whole world to remove the misunderstandings of some neighboring and Asian countries.

ASEAN is comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Having more China does not mean less US in southeast Asia," said US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "There is plenty of room for all of us and we don't see China as a winner," he said.

Hill who was speaking with AFP intended to justify his country's dramatic diplomatic defeat in grappling with Chin's increasing constructing role in orchestrating southeast Asians policy of peace and prosperity in recent years.

But at the same time, the Chinese more than three million army is strongly opposed to any military provocation and threat from US, NATO or any other nation as China is powerfully emerging as a full-fledged superpower.