China's military advances challenge U.S. power - Gates
TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. military presence in the Pacific is essential to restrain Chinese assertiveness, Washington's defence chief said on Friday, describing China's technology advances as a challenge to U.S. forces in the region.
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gives a speech to students at Keio University in Tokyo, January 14, 2011. (REUTERS/Larry Downing) |
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' comments are likely to add to tensions over political and economic quarrels between the two superpowers just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the United States.
President Barack Obama hosts Hu for a state visit on Jan. 19. U.S. officials say Obama will raise geopolitical problems such as Iran and North Korea as well as trade issues that bedevil ties between the world's two biggest economies.
Setting the tone for friction during the summit over the huge trade imbalance in Beijing's favour, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke complained on Thursday that China often failed to keep promises to open its markets and called for a "more equitable commercial relationship". Such differences would always weigh on ties, some Chinese analysts said.
"With irreconcilable interests, it is impossible to eliminate policy differences, which limits the good relations," Wu Xinbo, a researcher at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai wrote in the English-language Global Times on Friday.
"Today, China is disappointed, dissatisfied and confused by the series of hardline policies against China in the second year of the Obama administration. China is worried that this is a sign of a current or future major reversal in U.S. policy and strategy toward China."
Gates, in Japan after a visit to China earlier this week, said in a speech that advances by China's military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of U.S. forces to operate in the Pacific.
While saying he did not see China as an "inevitable strategic adversary", Gates stressed the importance of U.S. military ties with Japan, where about 49,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed.
Without the forward presence of U.S. troops in Japan, China "might behave more assertively towards its neighbours", he said.
Gates cited a territorial dispute between Japan and China that flared last year, calling it an example of why the U.S. alliance with Japan was so important.
The warning came days after China held its first test flight of a stealth fighter jet while Gates was in Beijing on a trip aimed at easing strained military ties.
China also plans to develop aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and other advanced systems which have alarmed the region and the United States, the dominant military power in the Pacific.
MILITARY PROGRAMME A "SOURCE OF CONCERN"
"Questions about (China's) intentions and opaque military modernisation programme have been a source of concern to its neighbours," Gates told university students in Tokyo.
"Questions about China's growing role in the region manifest themselves in territorial disputes, most recently in the incident in September near the Senkaku Islands," Gates said, using the Japanese name for them.
In China they are called the Diaoyu islands.
Gates said the United States had no doubt Hu was in control of China's military after the test flight of the stealth fighter jet had apparently caught China's civilian leaders unaware.
He said the incident was a worry, highlighting the importance of U.S.-China dialogue on military issues with both civilian and military officials.
While China's unveiling of the stealth fighter this week may have grabbed headlines, foreign powers are more worried about a growing naval build-up, especially as China has disputes over maritime boundaries with many of its neighbours.
But it will not only be military strains that set the tone of Hu's talks in Washington. He will face tough questions over China's economic policies.
Locke's critical remarks followed a speech by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who urged Beijing to move faster in allowing its currency to appreciate, to remove other trade barriers and to revise policies that forcefully tilt the China market playing field in the favour of Chinese firms.
China has said it would reform the yuan at its own pace, and on Friday reiterated it would not bow to foreign demand for faster gains in the currency.
"In undertaking reform of the exchange rate formation mechanism for the renminbi ... that is based on China's own developmental interests and needs, and is not in response to demands from another country," Cui Tiankai, a vice foreign minister, said on Friday.
"Of course, in doing this, that can benefit both China's own reform and opening up and development, and also trade and economic relations with other countries, including with the United States," he added, speaking at a forum hosted by the Foreign Ministry.
Many U.S. lawmakers direct their ire at China's currency policy. They contend China deliberately undervalues its yuan by as much as 15 percent to 40 percent to give its companies an unfair price advantage.
New trade figures released on Thursday showed the U.S. trade deficit with China alone totaled $252 billion during the first 11 months of 2010, keeping it on track to surpass the annual record of $268 billion in 2008.
China: Gates Sees Disconnect Between Military Leaders
Gates warns of civil-military disconnect in China
TOKYO — US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said after a trip to Beijing that China's revelation of a stealth jet's flight test pointed to a "disconnect" between its military and civilian leaders.
Gates was speaking in Japan on Friday, during a week-long Asia tour focused on the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea and the increasing military assertiveness in the region of Pyongyang's only major ally China.
The Pentagon chief stressed that China's President Hu Jintao, whom he met on Tuesday, was "in command and in charge" but also said there were signs that civilian leaders had been unaware of the J-20 jet's test flight.
When Gates met Hu and other top officials on Tuesday, Chinese state media published photos that were said to show the debut flight of the J-20, the country's first radar-evading combat aircraft.
The timing of the stealth fighter's flight appeared to be a snub to Washington, fuelling the sense of a military rivalry despite positive statements from both governments during the four-day visit.
But Gates said Friday that, in his meeting with Chinese civilian leaders, there were "pretty clear indications they were unaware of the flight test".
Gates, speaking at Tokyo's Keio University, said "this is an area where over the last several years we have seen some signs of, I guess I would call it a disconnect between the military and the civilian leadership".
China's government leaders had also appeared to be initially unaware of aggressive actions taken by their naval vessels against a US Navy surveillance ship in 2009, and of an anti-satellite test in recent years, Gates said.
Gates -- who later took off on a flight to South Korea -- renewed his warnings about China's latest weaponry, which he said presented a possible threat to the US military's long-running presence in the Pacific.
"Advances by the Chinese military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare pose a potential challenge to the ability of our forces to operate and communicate in this part of the Pacific," he said.
But he said Washington and Tokyo were well-placed to counter the threat with high-tech hardware and that it was not a foregone conclusion that China would turn into a military rival.
"I disagree with those who portray China as an inevitable strategic adversary of the United States," he said.
"We welcome a China that plays a constructive role on the world stage."
Gates stressed the importance of the half-century-old US-Japan alliance and American troop presence in the country -- both to deter the volatile North Korean regime and counter China's more assertive stance.
"Without such a presence, North Korea?s military provocations could be even more outrageous," and "China might behave more assertively towards its neighbours", said Gates.
"Without the forward presence of US forces in Japan, there would be less information sharing and coordination, and we would know less about regional threats and the military capabilities of our potential adversaries."
The presence of almost 50,000 US troops in Japan, dating back to World War II, has been a source of friction over the years, with strong opposition in Okinawa over plans to relocate an air base on the southern island.
However, tensions on the divided Korean peninsula and China's rising military power have renewed interest in the US-Japan alliance, with officials in Tokyo calling for bolstering defence ties with Washington.
Japan's relations with China plunged to their lowest point in years over a territorial dispute involving islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, last year.
The row erupted in September after a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese coastguard ships near the uninhabited islets.
Japan's pacifist constitution bars it from deploying troops in combat missions abroad, and US officials have long argued that the country ultimately benefits from the American military presence, with US forces guaranteeing the country's security at a relatively low cost.
Gates said the US provided security to Japan at a cost of less than one percent of GDP, and that "in economic terms, this alliance has been a very good deal for Japan".
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