On "Annual Report on Military Power of the People's Republic of China" by the U.S Defense Department (I)　　

　　President Bush said in his address delivered in Tsinghua University last year that China was one of the most dynamic and creative countries in the world and the U.S. welcomed the emergence of a strong, peaceful and prosperous China. In the meetings with leaders of China, President Bush stressed that a fine Sino-U.S. relations was not only important to the security and interest of the U.S., but also had a far-reaching effect on the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole. In the past two years, Sino-U.S. relations generally developed smoothly, and enjoyed the best time (Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State). China seeks after a stable Sino-U.S. relations and promotes energetically the regional and global peace. However, the Annual Report on Military power of the People's Republic of China released by the U.S. Defense Department　(hereafter refers to as Report) reveals some information conflicting the mainstream of the Sino-U.S relation.

　　Misrepresenting the strategic objectives and defense policies of China

　　On the strategic cogitation, the U.S. positions China as a state of "emerging with uncertain development direction and challenge the Asia-Pacific objective and interest," therefore, the U.S. should keep high alert to the direction of China's development. In the light of this cogitation, the 《Report》 of this year is still bearing the outworn and conventional color of the previous two 《Reports》 and full of suspicion and prejudice. When analyzing the future strategic objectives of China, the 《Report》 regards the promotion of comprehensive national strength and strategic structure as two major objectives of China, and especially mentions that a economic powerful China "could allocate its resources far a favorable 'strategic configuration of power'", implying that China is not content with the current situation, will seek for strategic interests in a larger scale, especially expanding to the maritime strategic passages controlled by the U.S. and will continue to seek opportunities to diminish U.S. regional influence, thus challenging the strategic structure dominated by the U.S.. In fact, since pursuing the policy of opening up and reform, China has always been giving priority to economic development and improving the living standard of the people. China has neither political intention nor the military strength to expand. The Malaysia Premier put it explicitly "the Asian countries don't have to be afraid of the ever-increasing military and economic strength, for China has no tradition to conquer the other countries."

　　When commenting on the security and military objectives of China, the 《Report》 does not unscramble the comprehensive and austere neighboring security situation and security strategic objectives from a developing point of view and from the aspect of international strategic situation. When explaining the reason why China gives priority to the core objective of state unification, it biasedly believes that " perhaps most importantly, challenges to the CCP's legitimacy." The explanation narrowed and simplified the security interest of China with an intention of generalizing it politically, indicates that the U.S. still possesses the rooted ideological color when reading China.

　　In fact, the scale of China's security interest is much broader than what the U.S. has shown its concern. When defining the strategic objectives, China not only considers the ever-changing international situation, but includes the traditional or non-traditional, the real or potential threats including the emerging terrorism, splittism, extremism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international crimes, drug trafficking and AIDS. When analysing the security strategic objectives, the 《Report》 plays down the above-mentioned threats especially the threat of terrorism, indicating that the U.S. only uses single factors to analyse a power, which has exposed the dishonest and inaccurate intention of the report, which in return leads to the biased concept and the inconvincible conclusion.

　　The 《Report》 believes that, China follows the practice of ambiguity in the field of security and military strategy and intentionally drum-plays the long-term objectives and hides the real strategic objectives. The 《Report》 specially mentions the tendency and intention of China's nuclear development and the trend of militarization of the outer space, then questions the defense policy of China. The 《Report》 argues that, the principle of defensive military strategy is "not inherently passive or defensive" and "may not be perceived by others as benign and peaceful". In fact, as a large developing country, China's first military strategy is to safeguard the security of the state and create a peaceful environment to develop economy. China sticks to the policy that army building should serve and obey the objectives of economic development. China pursues independent and peaceful foreign policy, positively dedicates to the global peace all the times. China neither seeks to lead the world nor plays a role as regional hegemony. From the military perspective, China pursues peaceful defense policy, has made positive efforts to promote the global disarmament and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, strives to promote stable neighboring security environment and global environment and will not pose any threat to the countries friendly to China.

　　Exaggerating China's military power

　　The 《Report》 has given a full account of Chinese military power in every aspect, from theory of operation and training to management and command control, from conventional forces to strategic forces, from the present armament of all forces to various modern weapons. Though the 《Report》 admitted "little is known about the most significant aspects of Chinese military power", it has conveyed a clear message between the lines, that is, China is rapidly strengthening its military power, becoming a severe challenge to Taiwan, U.S. and their allies. By exaggerating the threat of Chinese military power, the 《Report》 was covered with the shadow of "China Threat".

　　The 《Report》 stated that though the military expenditure of China in 2002 was publicly announced as $20 billion, the actual amount could be $65 billion, "making China the second largest defense spender in the world after the United States", and "the largest defense spender in Asia". Moreover, it made a bold prediction that annual spending could increase in real terms three- to four-folds by 2020. The reason for their extravagant overstating the military expenditure of China is "most defense modernization spending occurs outside the public PLA budget". We admit that in the light of the military reform and construction, Chinese military expenditure has increased to some degree, but it still remained at a very low level. In 2002, the military expenditure of China was 169.4 billion RMB yuan, that is 1.6% of its GNP, while U.S. reached 3.5% of its GNP. If it was $65 billion, as the 《Reported》 predicted, the Chinese military expenditure would take up 5.4% of its GNP and 29% of its national fiscal revenue. No country in the world today can afford such a proportion. If China had spent so much money on military modernization, how could we "focus on the central task of economic construction", and how could the Chinese economy keep the fastest annual growth speed in world economy? Only a little unbiased analysis will show that, such an assumption will not stand.

　　The report has given a lengthy and tedious account about the status of various armed forces of China involving in developing a large number of new weapons. It has also given a detailed introduction of Russian selling weapons and transferring technology to China, exaggerating the latest developing level of Chinese armament, and suggesting that the modernization of China has become a threat to international community. Actually, the general armament of the PLA cannot satisfy the combating demand, not to say to be compared with other military powers that are leading world new military changes. Can we say the armament of a country that needs to import high-tech weapons from other military powers has become a threat to international community? The American Foreign Affairs Society admitted in an evaluation report this May, "in military technology and capacity, Chinese military power lags behind the U.S. at least 20 years." The International Crisis Group also pointed out in "Taiwan Strait Conflict Evaluation Report" released this June, "the weapons Taiwan imported has obviously surpassed that of the mainland of China". In fact, the American military forces knew clearly that there is still a large gap between the military power of China and the U.S. However, for some hidden purpose, they were just exaggerating it intentionally.

　　The ultimate goal of the U.S. to exaggerate military expenditure and armament is to draw the conclusion that the military power of China has become a threat or challenge to its neighboring region and the world. Military modernization is a normal pursuit of every nation for defending their security. No country will give up its military power by itself, or take no action, disregarding various security threats it is faced with. The U.S. is the No. 1 military power in the world today, with unparallel military forces. Despite that, it is still increasing military expenditure with a large scale to enhance its armament technology continuously. China, as a vast country, is faced with various complex securing threats. To maintain national security and territorial integrity, China has every right to increase military expenditure, improve armament and carrie out military modernization for self-defense and that cannot be reproached.

　　By Zhan Yan

　 (September 9, PLA Daily)