Everything seemed to have been going well last year. In May 2006, Admiral William J. Fallon, then combatant commander for U.S. forces in the Pacific (CINCPAC) ” and now the chief overseeing the more fraught theater that includes both Iraq and Afghanistan ” visited four cities during an official tour of China that was, at its core, an open invitation for Beijing to emerge from the secrecy that shrouds much of its military planning and spending. The incentive for China? To sit down, U.S. officials later said, with counterparts in the Pentagon and be treated not as an enemy, but as a rising power with valid interests in the Pacific and beyond. After the visit, China’s foreign ministry spokesman said, “military ties [between the two countries] are facing a precious opportunity of development,” and at a meeting in Beijing’s defense ministry, the deputy chief of the General Staff, Ge Zhenfeng, told Fallon that the two militaries needed to stop viewing each other “though the lens of ignorance and suspicion.” [Full Text]
Read also: The Real China Threat – from the Boston Globe
After China’s recent announcement of an 18 percent increase in its official military budget for 2007, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte requested that China be more transparent about its true levels of defense spending and its intentions. The coincidence of China’s announcement and Negroponte’s visit risks giving the impression that China is becoming the dangerous military adversary that ultra-conservatives have long foretold.
The reality is quite different. There are reasons to worry about China’s expanding role on the world stage, but they have less to do with military power than with China’s economic influence and the regime’s disdain for human rights — both at home and abroad.
To be sure, Chinese leaders remain as neurotic as ever about Taiwan. They complained to Negroponte about the Bush administration’s plan to sell 400 missiles to Taiwan. He had to assure his hosts that the missile deal in no way alters America’s commitment to a longstanding one-China policy. [Full Text]