Beijing, 10 June: Chinese military experts pointed out in interviews on 10 June that US Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld's move in recently playing up in Singapore the "theory of China's military threat" was completely groundless and done with ulterior motives, and its main purpose was to attempt to help US arms manufacturers to promote sales of their weapons.
Rumsfeld claimed at the Asian security conference in Singapore that China's actual military expenditure ranks first in Asia and third in the world, and he "cannot understand why China is continuing to increase its military expenditure when no nation is threatening it".
Maj-Gen Peng Guangqian, a research fellow of the Military Science Academy, said that there are many reasons why US quarters concerned have recently been keen on talking about the "theory of China's military threat"; with the high tide of military action in the Iraq war having passed, the US Department of Defence needs to find a pretext for the existence of its massive military expenditure and military strength, and find a way out for the vast US armament industry; at the same time, it wants to find a reason for the US military presence in Asia, and create a pretext for military intervention in the Taiwan Strait situation and for arms sales to the Taiwan independence forces.
Peng Guangqian pointed out that it is no coincidence that Rumsfeld has dished up the "theory of China's military threat" at this time. The US Department of Defence is currently hurrying to cook up a review of China's military strength with the aim of expanding arms sales to Taiwan and at the same time in order to increase the US armed forces' procurement of weapons from the domestic arms industry. According to people who have seen a draft of the Department of Defence report, the part that deals with a possible threat to US interests from China's space technology development "is simply like a science fiction novel".
Peng Guangqian said, the notion that "China's military expenditure ranks first in Asia and third in the world" is purely wild speculation and concoction of figures. China's national defence expenditure last year was 211.7bn renminbi [RMB], while US national defence expenditure was 455.9bn US dollars, 17.8 times China's, and US per-capita expenditure was 77 times China's. US defence expenditure accounts for nearly half the world total.
Peng Guangqian said, China is a sovereign state, and investing a certain proportion of national defence expenditure in maintaining the limited national defence forces is a basic right and objective need of a sovereign state. "China's military forces have always been defensive, and will not threaten any other country."
Peng Guangqian pointed out that the so-called "theory of China's military threat" is just the view of spokesmen of certain interest groups within the US government. Newsweek recently reported that certain Americans, mainly neoconservatives and some Pentagon officials, have all along been clamouring about the "theory of the China threat" and exerted great efforts to exaggerate China's military capability. China is now developing its military, but its military expenditure is less than 10 per cent of the Pentagon's military budget.
Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in Chinese 0427 gmt 10 Jun 05
