Senior U.S. Official Presses Beijing to Clarify ‘Plans and Intentions’, via the Washington Post:
China announced Sunday that it will increase military spending at a sharply higher rate this year, budgeting a rise of nearly 18 percent, and a senior U.S. official immediately called for clarity on the planned expenditures.
Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said at a news conference at the end of his maiden visit to Beijing in his new post that the Bush administration is dissatisfied with China’s unwillingness to share such information. “We think it’s important in our dialogue that we understand what China’s plans and intentions are,” he said…
A spokesman for the National People’s Congress, which opened its annual session Monday, said military expenditures were rising to cover the cost of better training and higher salaries in the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army and benefits for about 200,000 soldiers shed from the ranks over the past several years. Reducing the lower ranks and improving technological training for remaining troops have been major parts of the country’s long-range military improvement program. [Full Text]
