China's military on Thursday promised to work at building trust with neighbouring countries following months of tensions with the US and other nations over Beijing's increasingly assertive behaviour. The pledge was contained in a government policy paper issued every two years and follows complaints from the United States and others that China hasn't adequately explained the goals of its rapid military expansion in the last three decades.
Alarm bells have sounded over China's detention of foreign fishermen and harassment of research vessels in the South China Sea, along with warnings to the US to stay out of the Yellow Sea off the northern coast and aggressive manoeuvring by Chinese ships and helicopters in waters near Japan.
Stronger assertions of sovereignty claims have also sparked a regional backlash, drawing China's neighbours closer to rival Washington and posing new challenges to Chinese diplomacy. In an apparent recognition of the need for greater communication, the defence report included for the first time a separate section on military confidence building, highlighting defence consultations, joint training missions and exchanges between border units.
China, the report stated, is pursuing such steps as "an effective way to maintain national security and development, and safeguard regional peace and stability." Despite the stated aim of greater military trust, China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday dismissed Japanese protests over an incident earlier this month in which a helicopter belonging to China's State Oceanic Administration flew within 230 feet (70 meters) of a Japanese destroyer as it was patrolling near a disputed area.
Washington has urged increased contacts with the Chinese military, although the People's Liberation Army has often appeared reluctant. Beijing cut off formal exchanges in anger over a $6.4 billion arms package offered to Taiwan last year, although the defence paper said the two sides are now "maintaining effective dialogues and communications after various ups and downs."
The 2.3 million-member PLA is the world's largest standing military and its modernisation has been accompanied by gradual steps toward greater engagement with the outside world, including sending more than 17,000 military personnel to take part in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Yet the PLA's boosted capabilities and soaring budgets have also alarmed observers concerned with challenges to the US Navy's predominance in the western Pacific. On the back of booming economic growth, China's official defence spending rose 12.7 percent this year to about 601 billion yuan ($91.5 billion), the second highest in the world behind the United States. In introducing the report, Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng reasserted Chinese claims that it would never use its military might to bully its neighbours.
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