US Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to Singapore Thursday for security talks amid US worries about a Chinese military buildup as Washington struggles with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates will join senior officials and experts from around the region, including China, Friday at an annual international conference in Singapore to share views on a range of security issues.
By Jim Mannion
HONOLULU, May 30 2007 - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to Singapore Thursday for security talks amid US worries about a Chinese military buildup as Washington struggles with conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates will join senior officials and experts from around the region, including China, Friday at an annual international conference in Singapore to share views on a range of security issues.
Gates stopped here first for briefings at the headquarters of the US Pacific Command, which covers a vast region peppered with potential flashpoints from Korea to the Taiwan Straits to the Indo-Pakistani frontier.
Setting the stage for a debate on China, the Pentagon last week released a report to Congress detailing Beijing's drive to acquire new warships, aircraft and missiles capable of projecting power far beyond its shores.
The report estimated Chinese military spending at two to three times its official 43 billion dollar budget, raised questions about Beijing's long-term aims and motives, and warned of repercussions for the balance of power in the region.
China called the report a rude interference in its internal affairs, and an attempt to foster perceptions that China is a threat.
The so-called Shangri-la Dialogue will give Gates an opportunity to cast his approach to China.
An understated former intelligence analyst, Gates has refrained from accusatory rhetoric in his rare public comments on China since assuming office six months ago from his combative predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.
"It would be nice to hear first hand from the Chinese how they view these things," Gates said last week. "We wish that there were greater transparency, that they would talk more about what their intentions are, what their strategies are."
After Beijing announced in March that it was increasing its military budget by nearly 18 percent, Gates said the boost "doesn't say much at all about China's intention."
"I do not see China, at this point, as a strategic adversary of the United States," he said. "It's a partner in some respects, it's a competitor in other respects."
He said it is "very important for us to engage the Chinese on all facets of our relationship as a way of building mutual confidence."
Gates has pursued a similar approach in the Middle East, reaching out to estranged Arab governments while increasing the US naval presence in the Gulf in a signal to Iran of Washington's long-term commitment to the region.
At Shangri-la, Gates is also likely to face questions about US commitment to the Asia-Pacific region at a time when the United States is embroiled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US air and naval power remains a powerful deterrent in the region, but senior US military leaders acknowledge that the war in Iraq has undercut their ability to respond to contingencies elsewhere with US ground troops.
And despite Gates' mild manner, the US military sees in China a looming rival that is adroitly exploiting information technologies, space and cyberwarfare, as well as conventional military force, to offset US advantages.
In January, China got the attention of the US military by destroying one of its own weather satellites with a ballistic missile, demonstrating its capacity to hit surveillance satellites in low Earth orbit.
"It's a matter of their building their military, in my view, to reach some sort of state of parity with the United States," retired admiral Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, told lawmakers in late February. "So in a threat sense it becomes intention."
