US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Wednesday he does not see China as a strategic adversary of the US despite its rapid military modernization.
China's recent announcement of a nearly 18 percent increase in military spending this year to US$45 billion "doesn't say much at all about China's intentions," Gates said.
"I do not see China, at this point, as a strategic adversary of the United States," he said. "It's a partner in some respects. It's a competitor in other respects, and so we are simply watching to see what they're doing."
PHOTO: AP
The secretary's mild reaction stood in contrast with the White House's expressions of concern over China's announcement of its budget this year, and criticism of its military buildup by Vice President Dick Cheney.
On a trip to Australia last month, Cheney said a recent Chinese anti-satellite test and the military buildup were "not consistent with China's stated goal of a `peaceful rise.'"
Gates said China clearly is making a significant investment in its military forces and he guessed that the budget announced by Beijing "does not represent their entire military budget."
"I think that greater transparency would help, from the standpoint of the Chinese, in terms of both what they're doing and what their strategies are, their intent in modernizing these forces, greater openness about the purposes," he said.
General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US military considers military capabilities that countries are developing, regardless of their intent.
"We assure ourselves that we can deal with that capacity and that we have an overmatching capacity for that, and where we don't, that we ask in the budget for the funding to be able to address that gap if it exists," Pace said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not