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China a threat to US: intelligence chief

China's military modernization is aimed at achieving parity with the US and not limited to its drive for unification with Taiwan, the US intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

The new director of national intelligence, retired admiral Michael McConnell, said that China could be a threat to the US today because of its intercontinental nuclear missiles and will be an increasing threat as it modernizes its military. But he later retracted the remark.

"It's a matter of their building their military, in my view, to reach some sort of state of parity with the United States," he said. "So in a threat sense it becomes intention."

"They are a threat today, they will become an increasing threat over time," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

When committee chairman Senator Carl Levin asked McConnell whether he meant to say China will be an increasing threat rather than have an increasing capability, McConnell said: "Yes sir. What I was attempting to say is they will improve their capability over time."

In a prepared statement surveying threats facing the US, McConnell said China's rapid rate of military modernization would continue even if the cross-strait conflict were resolved.

"The Chinese are developing more capable long-range conventional strike systems and short and medium range ballistic missiles with terminally guided maneuverable warheads able to attack US carriers and air bases," it said.

Lieutenant General Michael Maples, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, estimated China's annual defense spending at between US$80 billion and US$115 billion, the highest in the world after the US.

However, Deputy Director of National Intelligence Thomas Fingar said that the Chinese "appear to have decided that we are not an enemy."

"They require a peaceful international environment in order to proceed with economic modernization in order to address their severe social problems, but they are a country with a history in their view of having been victimized by stronger external powers," he said.

"And they take national defense, including lessons learned out of Desert Shield/Desert Storm forward defense, to heart," he said.

In response to questions, McConnell said that in his view a greater threat is that China may be beset by internal strife if it fails to meet its economic growth plan.

In his prepared statement, he said rural discontent has erupted in the form of an increasing number of local demonstrations and riots and could undermine China's continued rapid economic growth.

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