By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
China could pose a future military threat to other Asian countries but its current ability to project power beyond its periphery is "limited", the Pentagon said yesterday.
In its long-awaited annual report on the Chinese military, the Pentagon concluded that China was increasing its efforts to prepare for a conflict over Taiwan, including taking longer-term measures to defend itself from other countries who could get involved in a conflict over Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.
"We see China facing a strategic crossroads," the Pentagon report said. "Questions remain about the basic choices China's leaders will make as China's power and influence grow, particularly its military power."
The report said the Chinese military was focusing in the short term on modernising its ability to fight short, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery. But it said the People's Liberation Army was also taking longer-term steps to increase its defences against the potential involvement of other countries in any conflict between China and Taiwan.
Those measures include expanding its arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, its submarine fleet, and purchasing advanced aircraft.
"Over the long term, if current trends persist, PLA capabilities could pose a credible threat to other modern militaries operating in the region," the report said.
But while the report said China posed a potential future threat to other Asian countries, it concluded that China's current ability to "project conventional military power beyond its periphery remains limited".
The report added that the PLA was working towards its goals by "acquiring new foreign and domestic weapon systems and military technologies [and] promulgating new doctrine for modern warfare".
The tone of the report echoes remarks by Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, who when speaking to a June meeting of Asian defence ministers in Singapore questioned why China was dramatically increasing its defence budget when "no nation threatens China".
The report comes on the heels of comments by a senior Chinese general last week who suggested that China would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in any conflict with the US over Taiwan.
Mr Rumsfeld yesterday described those remarks as a "bump in the road" in a relationship that has seen improvement over the past few years.
The report also comes as anti-China concerns mount on Capitol Hill.
Mr Rumsfeld also said the report demonstrated why it was important for the European Union not to lift its embargo on arms sales to China. The EU appears to have moved away from lifting the embargo this year because of strong lobbying from the US.
The report has been the subject of intense bureaucratic infighting. The State Department and National Security Council opposed an initial Pentagon draft, which they believed painted an overly antagonistic picture by signalling that China could emerge as a "strategic rival" to the US.
"This report is much improved over the past five years, and is well balanced, yet pioneers with new evidence that China's build-up goes beyond Taiwan," said Mike Pillsbury, an author on the Chinese military who advocates a hard-line stance on China.
"The build-up includes forces that can be redeployed away from Taiwan some day toward any other regional nations such as India, Japan, Vietnam, even central Asia and Russia. Yet the report is careful not to call China a threat to the US."
The report also criticised China for the level of secrecy it maintains about its military strategy and expenditures.
"The outside world has little knowledge of Chinese motivations and decision-making and of key capabilities supporting PLA modernisation."
