Defense Secretary Robert Gates dismissed the Chinese government's concerns about American missile-defense plans and its insistence that its long-range ballistic missiles don't represent a threat to other countries.
Mr. Gates's comments to reporters at a regional security conference in Singapore underscored the security issues that continue to divide Washington and Beijing, despite the Bush administration's relatively nonconfrontational approach to China.
02 June 2008: Wall St Journal
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and GORDON FAIRCLOUGH
SINGAPORE -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates dismissed the Chinese government's concerns about American missile-defense plans and its insistence that its long-range ballistic missiles don't represent a threat to other countries.
Mr. Gates's comments to reporters at a regional security conference in Singapore underscored the security issues that continue to divide Washington and Beijing, despite the Bush administration's relatively nonconfrontational approach to China.
U.S. officials are also angry that China continues to strongly support Myanmar despite its junta's refusal to approve extensive foreign relief efforts in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone there.
Mr. Gates's latest comments on China appear to represent a shift. In the run-up to the conference, his aides debated how strongly in his prepared remarks Saturday to criticize China. The U.S. defense chief ultimately decided to make only oblique reference to China in the speech, continuing a recent administration effort to play down disputes with Beijing.
On Sunday, Mr. Gates was significantly more critical, in large measure because of unusually pointed remarks from a senior Chinese official that were seen by conference participants as directed squarely at the U.S. and its main regional ally, Japan.
Speaking Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the deputy chief of the general staff of China's People's Liberation Army, said that the U.S. "expansion of military alliances" and the "development and expansion of missile-defense systems" was "undercutting the equilibrium of regional powers."
The U.S. has been working with Japan to expand missile-defense systems in Asia, and Washington has been pushing Tokyo to strengthen its own military capabilities as the U.S. readjusts its forces in the region and prepares to move 8,000 Marines to Guam from Okinawa.
The Chinese general also brushed aside questions about China's continuing military expansion, arguing that the sharp increases in its military expenditures were in line with the growth of the country's rapidly expanding economy.
China has been investing heavily in missile technology, including the development of longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. The missiles are a cause of deep concern to Japan and other U.S. allies across Asia, but Gen. Ma insisted in his remarks that the missiles weren't offensive in nature and shouldn't be seen as threatening.
The U.S. defense chief argued that the American missile-defense systems envisioned by the Bush administration are so limited in scope that they would be easily "overwhelmed" by a sustained volley of Chinese intercontinental missiles.
"The facts betray that I think it's more of a political statement than it is one about military strategy," he remarked on the Chinese concerns about U.S. missile defense.
Mr. Gates rejected Gen. Ma's contention that the Chinese missiles didn't represent a threat to the U.S. or any neighboring Asian countries.
"I don't know what you use them for if it's not for offensive capability," he said. "It's hard to see an intercontinental ballistic missile as a defensive weapon."
The Pentagon chief also said the U.S. was concerned about the "numbers and the nature" of China's military build-up, concerns echoed by many of the other senior defense officials at the conference.
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