Posted on 02/18/2005 7:31:25 PM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the Pentagon was closely monitoring the growth of China's navy as part of that country's overall military buildup.
"It is an issue that the department thinks about and is concerned about and is attentive to," Mr. Rumsfeld said when asked at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about intelligence projections that the size of the Chinese fleet could surpass that of the United States Navy within a decade.
The expansion of China's navy is just one aspect of Beijing's military expansion that Pentagon and intelligence analysts are watching. Mr. Rumsfeld noted that the Chinese military budget had experienced double-digit growth in recent years.
The concerns come as Mr. Rumsfeld has agreed in principle to pay an official visit to China later this year in what many analysts have interpreted as an effort toward mending military ties damaged after a Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided in international airspace in 2001.
But a recent Chinese policy paper challenging the American military presence in the Pacific, and the Bush administration's concern about China's military buildup across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan, has prompted some statements of tension.
"The People's Republic of China," Mr. Rumsfeld said, "is a country that we hope and pray enters the civilized world in an orderly way without the grinding of gears and that they become a constructive force in that part of the world and a player in the global environment that's constructive."
But, he said, "They've got competing pressures between the desire to grow, which takes a free economy as opposed to a command economy, and their dictatorial system, which is not a free system. And there's a tension there, and I don't know how it'll come out, but I quite agree with you that we need to be attentive to it."
Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon spokesman, said later that Mr. Rumsfeld did not mean to suggest China was not a civilized nation, only that it had been "an inward-looking government for decades and was now emerging as a global actor."
On Wednesday, Porter J. Goss, the central intelligence director, also warned of China's military expansion. Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he said: "Beijing's military modernization and military buildup could tilt the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait. Improved Chinese capabilities threaten U.S. forces in the region. In 2004, China increased its ballistic missile forces deployed across from Taiwan and rolled out several new submarines. China continues to develop more robust, survivable nuclear-armed missiles, as well as conventional capabilities for use in regional conflict."
On Wednesday Mr. Rumsfeld also offered a cautionary assessment of China's military activities.
"They're growing rapidly and they're making significant investments in defense capabilities, military capabilities," he told the House Armed Services Committee then.
"They are buying a great deal of equipment from Russia," Mr. Rumsfeld continued. "They're making an increasing amount of equipment. It's more advanced technologically. They're actively trying to get access to European technology by getting the arms embargo ban lifted from the European Union, which it looks like the European Union is along the track to do at some point. They're increasingly moving their navy further distances from their shores in various types of exercises and activities. And that's a reality."
Revoke MFN and China would be on its knees in a year.
Given China's view of warfare we already at war. Other than a few at the War College no one seems to notice.
But, he said, "They've got competing pressures between the desire to grow, which takes a free economy as opposed to a command economy, and their dictatorial system, which is not a free system. And there's a tension there, and I don't know how it'll come out, but I quite agree with you that we need to be attentive to it."
Excellent comment. I agree.
China conciders us the great paper tiger that is as weak as it is tranparent.
They have spies all over the US. Our government is allowing them to buy up our businesses. We must throw out all those who voted for Most Favored Nation status and quit this so called free trade.
They are getting rich off the American's and they are using their profits to build up their military to attach us at some point.
This is how I see it...
Yikes...
that was supposed to be attack not attach
Time to start laying the keels for a new improved class of Aegis missile cruisers. And finally the USS Jimmy Carter is commissioned tomorrow. The U.S. Navy likewise needs more Seawolf-class attack subs. Attempted Chinese superiority must be challenged!
I agree... I agree... They stole a lot under Clinton.
America must not kid itself about what China's intentions are.
That was my first thought when I read the article - reminded me of "Dragon's Fury".
Is Europe good for anything?
The "great paper tiger" grew some new fangs today:
I strongly recommend Bill Gertz's book The China Threat. China makes little effort to hide its intentions regarding an eventual challenge to the US. Sadly, our government seems to want to ignore the obvious indicators, and, even worse, has even assisted China with its military build-up.
Several decades too late, but the only good news is that some are finally starting to wake up.
Good God, the writing has been on the wall for a very, very long time. The Clinton years were a complete and total unmitigated disaster in terms of quarantining China and thwarting the China threat. It is clearly time to change course when it comes to China. No high-tech gear for starters. No dual-use technologies. Keep a close eye on "US businessmen" that have an inordinate interest in exporting high-tech material to China, and have displayed a pattern of doing so since the Clinton years, in particular. No more foolish tolerance of Chinese industrial espionage. No more liberal (read: treasonous) support for China and its Front Organizations and so-called "businesses" that represent its military interests.
As a bonus, we should endeavor to right the great wrong that Carter and Clinton did in their respective parts in the Great Panama Canal Giveaway and put the canal back under direct, and unyielding, U.S. control. Organizations that, on the surface, seem to be 'business' interests based out of China, yet have a P.L.A.N command and control and/or "management structure" should come under increasing scrutiny and be tracked with extreme care with appropriate military assets (I would say this should also include container ships, not just Guam-lurking subs...). Anyone found aboard needs to "go back".. I note that container ships would be an ideal conduit for Chinese special forces (sic.) and sleeper cells (in civilian garb of course, the typical convincing refugee 'story'?) and materiel in direct tow or separately to pre-arranged rally points.
We have a long way to go. If the Democrats stay completely out of power for the next 100 years, we may yet have a clear shot at winning in the Big Game. The problem is that the Democrats have assiduously undermined our strategic interests for the better part of the Twentieth Century and now we have to right the good old ship. This will not be easy and unfortunately may come at a very high price if we continue to aid and abet in the force modernization plans (pun intended) of the Chinese military which has quite obviously been going on for a very, very long time.
God help us all.
Becoming Vietnam's ally would be strange, indeed!
No. Who's Jeff Head?
The Aegis equipped warship is showing it's age,though it's still better than anything China has.The USN is already working on systems like the next generation DDX-slight problem will be funding!!
'Bout time this made the NEWS.
Jeff Head is a 48 year-old father of five children who lives in Southwest Idaho. He and his wife of 27 years are the proud grandparents of two grandsons from their oldest daughter and her husband, and a granddaughter from their third daughter and her husband.
Mr. Head is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and a member of the U.S. Naval Institute. He has worked as an engineer and consultant for over twenty-five years in the defense, nuclear power, and computer industries where he has been involved in various engineering, support, and management capacities. Projects he has been involed with have included the A-7 attack aircraft program, the San Onofre Nucler Power Project, the MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) program, and the Theater High Altitude Air Defense System (THAADS), among others.
While working as a director at Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, Mr. Head was involved in efforts at Thiokol Corporation's Strategic Operations Division to review & improve their operations in the years following the shuttle Challenger disaster. As a result of that effort, in 1992 Mr. Head was presented a Vice President’s award from Thiokol Strategic Operations for his team's efforts in the Computer-Aided-Engineering (CAE) area.
As a senior manager at Micron Electronics, Mr. Head oversaw the development of their Trek and Trek2 lines of portable computers, setting up manufacturing and product development operations in the Republic of China. These products became the most successful line of portable computers in Micron Electronics' history. In these and other consulting endeavors, Mr. Head has traveled extensively overseas to the Far East, India, and portions of Eastern Europe on behalf of U.S. firms helping establish off-shore manufacturing and product development operations.
Mr. Head has been personally involved in many civic events including the Klamath Basin Water Crisis in Oregon in 2001. As a result of that involvement, and as a reult of his work with respect to issues associated with the 9-11 attacks, in August of 2002 Mr. Head accepted an Eagle Award from the FreeRepublic Web Site as their "Person of the Year for 2001". His 9-11 work is outlined on a web site called, "Attack on America" memorializing the horrific events of Sep 11, 2001. In 2003, Mr. Head was presented a National Leadership Award from the National Republican Congressional Committee and named as the Honorary Idaho Chairman to their Business Advisory Council. In 2004, the National Republican Congressional Committee awarded Mr. Head the Ronald Reagan Gold Medal Award.
Mr. Head is currently authoring the DRAGON'S FURY SERIES of best selling techno-thriller novels about a fictional third world war that develops out of current worldwide geo-political conditions. Dragon's Fury is selling online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble. BoolsAMillion and other places.
Mr. Head also is very active in his Church and with the Boy Scouts of America, helping with rafting trips, winter camps and wilderness camps in Idaho.
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