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Pentagon worried about PRC's plans

"It looks like they are preparing for something other than a political solution to the Taiwan problem. And we find that disconcerting."

Ryan Henry, principal deputy US undersecretary of defense for policy

China may be preparing to deal with its dispute over Taiwan through other than political means as it increases its offensive military power, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

"They continue to increase their offensive systems," Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters.

"It looks like they are preparing for something other than a political solution to the Taiwan problem. And we find that disconcerting," he said.

Henry, who spoke at a breakfast session with reporters, said the US was seeking greater openness from China's military.

"One of the things that we think that would help with the Chinese is a degree of transparency," he said, citing China's growing budget and military capabilities.

"It is difficult to know exactly what they are doing," he said.

"What we are looking for is dialogue and transparency so that they can understand what we are doing, we can better understand what they are doing," Henry said.

He did not, however, describe any specific Chinese moves.

A Defense Department official said that Henry was referring to China's long-term military modernization, not any signs of imminent attack.

Beijing appears to be arming itself to prevent Taiwan from declaring formal independence or to compel a settlement on Beijing's terms as well as to counter potential US intervention in a cross-strait crisis, said the official, who declined to be named.

Last week, the Pentagon, in a new long-range strategy blueprint, called China the rising power with the greatest potential to compete militarily with the US.

The strategy calls for new long-range weapons and a greater US naval presence in the Pacific.

Beijing is estimated to have deployed 800 or more short-range ballistic missiles across the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing could use its weapons to try to decapitate Taiwan's military and political leadership and break its will before the US or other nations can intervene, the Pentagon said in another document, the 2005 edition of its annual report to Congress on China's military power.

Washington is eager to head off a showdown with China over Taiwan.

US President George W. Bush vowed in April 2000 to do whatever it took to help Taiwan defend itself if attacked.

Since then, his administration has pressed President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to avoid provoking Beijing.

Earlier on Wednesday in Beijing, China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) condemned a plan floated by President Chen last month to scrap 15-year-old guidelines on unification designed to reduce the risk of provoking conflict with China.

"This demonstrates once again that he is a troublemaker and saboteur of cross-strait relations and peace and stability in Asia," Li Weiyi (李維一), a spokesman for the TAO, told a news conference without mentioning Chen by name.

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