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Saturday June 2, 2:47 PMChinese general raps U.S.-Japan missile cooperation(Kyodo) _ A top Chinese general strongly criticized on Saturday Japan-U.S. ballistic missile cooperation."China is quite concerned about the intention of the United States and Japan. We are worried this kind of deployment would destabilize Asia and create uncertainty in terms of regional stability and peace," Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, said at a conference in Singapore on security in the Asia-Pacific. "If Japan and the United deploy missile defense systems that covers Taiwan...China believes that any bilateral military cooperation should never target a third party or infringe the interest of a third party," he said at the conference that involves defense ministers and military chiefs from more than 20 countries and about 300 other delegates. Japan and the United States are jointly developing missile defense systems mainly to deal with threats from North Korea as well as China's rapidly growing military. Last month, the two security allies agreed to expand the scope of sharing ballistic missile defense and other military data and agreed to conclude a treaty to more comprehensively protect military information. Zhang made the comments as a member of the audience during a plenary session on nuclear challenges where Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma had given a speech. Zhang also took a swipe at the United States for its report last month on China's military capacity, saying, "This report is unreliable" and "a product of the Cold War mindset." In his speech at an earlier plenary session on the role of China and India in building international stability, Zhang defended the Chinese government's data on defense spending as "true and authentic," rejecting western accusations of underreporting. "In China, defense budgeting must follow a set of highly strict legal procedures, and the published Chinese defense budget is true and authentic," he said. The United States criticized China's lack of transparency in its military activities in its annual Pentagon report to Congress last month on China's military power. The report also said that although Beijing has announced a defense budget of $45 billion for 2007, up 17.8 percent from the previous year and marking the 19th straight year of double-digit growth, China's overall military-related outlays for this year are much more and could be up to $125 billion. "As the level of Chinese military modernization gradually rises, some raise the question of 'military transparency,' and voice their suspicion over our defense budget," Zhang said, adding that China's military power still "cannot possibly match the developed countries in a long time to come." U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who addressed the conference earlier in the day, had said China's growing military buildup was worrisome. "We are concerned about the opaqueness of Beijing's military spending and modernization programs," Gates said. The three-day annual conference, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, is also attended by defense ministers or military chiefs from Australia, South Korea, Germany, Britain, Canada, India and Pakistan. |
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