From Reuters via the Washington Post (link)
China’s military is transparent and not a threat, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday after the United States and Japan criticized the Asia giant for not being open enough about a build-up of its defense forces.
China’s 2.3-million-strong People’s Liberation Army is the world’s largest standing force and Beijing has said its official defense budget is set to rise 14.7 percent to 283.8 billion yuan ($35 billion) in 2006.
During a visit to Australia on Monday, Wen said China had reduced its military by 1.7 million over the past two decades, and its military spending as a share of the gross domestic product and the government budget was fairly low by international standards.
