China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia as far afield as the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said. In an annual report to Congress, the US Defence Department said Monday that China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.
"The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland's favour," the report said. The Pentagon said China's military build-up on the Taiwan Strait has "continued unabated" despite improving political and commercial relations since the island elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008.
Taiwan said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" China's arms build-up and renewed calls for the United States to sell it upgraded F16 jets and diesel submarines in the wake of the report. "China has not given up the use of force against Taiwan, and we are closely monitoring China's military developments. We ask the public to rest assured," defence ministry spokesman Yu Sy-tue told AFP.
The report - which US officials delayed for five months amid strains with China - covered 2009, before the United States approved a 6.4 billion-dollar arms package for the island in January. China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
The military report said China was "already looking at contingencies beyond Taiwan," including through a longstanding project to build a far-reaching missile that could potentially strike US carriers deep in the Pacific. "Current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances and could provide China with a force capable of conducting a range of military operations in Asia well beyond Taiwan," it said.
China's military doctrine has traditionally emphasised the ability to strike within an area extending to Japan's Okinawa island chain and throughout the South China Sea east of Vietnam, the report said. But Chinese strategists are now looking to expand their reach further to be able to hit targets as far away as Guam, including much of mainland Japan and the Philippines, it said.
China is working on the longer-range precision missile, but probably needs more work on the technical infrastructure to put the weapon into use, an official who helped draft the report said on condition of anonymity. Japan said it would keep a close eye on the Chinese build-up. "Studying the latest US report, Japan will keep paying attention to China's military trend as it will have a significant impact on security in the region, including Japan, and on the international community," a defence ministry spokeswoman said. Japan and Vietnam, which both have historic tensions with China, have reported rising incidents with China's military in recent months and the report predicted China may step up patrols in the South China Sea. In March, China said it was raising its defence budget by 7.5 percent to 532.1 billion yuan - 77.9 billion dollars at the exchange rate at the time - breaking a string of double-digit increases.
The Pentagon study was cautious on suggestions that China's military was tightening its belt, saying the spending growth may be lower simply because the forces were at the end of a five-year program. The Pentagon paper estimated China's overall military-related spending was more than 150 billion dollars in 2009 when including areas that do not figure in the publicly released budget.
President Barack Obama's administration has sought to broaden co-operation with China, but bilateral military exchanges were broken off after the US agreed an arms package with Taiwan that included helicopters, missile defences and mine-sweepers. The Pentagon said it wanted dialogue with China to avoid any "miscalculation" between the two militaries. "We stand prepared to work with the Chinese if they are prepared to work with us," the anonymous official said.