We can glean a fewhints from China’sown report on thesubject.
What Are China’s Military Hopes?By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 25th, 2007Below are extracts from a report issued by the Chinese Information Office of the State Council. Entitled simply, “China’s National Defense in 2006,” one may perhaps glean what are China’s military plans if one reads between the lines–especially regarding the United States and “Free China”, or Taiwan.“To uphold world peace, promote common development and seek cooperation and win-win is the common wish of the people around the world and an irresistible trend of our times. Committed to peace, development and cooperation, China pursues a road of peaceful development, and endeavors to build, together with other countries, a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.”China’s national defense and military modernization, conducted on the basis of steady economic development, is the requirement of keeping up with new trends in the global revolution and development in military affairs, and of maintaining China’s national security and development.”China will not engage in any arms race or pose a military threat to any other country.”Peace and development remain the principal themes in today’s world…but uncertainties and destabilizing factors are on the increase, and new challenges and threats are continuously emerging.”Progress is expected in addressing the serious imbalances in the international strategic alignment. The major international forces compete with and hold each other in check. But, they also maintain coordination and practical cooperation in their mutual relationships, and draw on each other’s strengths. Some major developing countries and regional groupings have grown in power, and the developing world as a whole is becoming stronger.”A revolution in military affairs is developing in depth worldwide. […] Some developed countries have increased their input into the military and speeded up R&D of high-tech weaponry to gain military superiority. Many developing countries are also upgrading their armaments and modernizing their military forces. […]”The overall security environment in the Asia-Pacific region remains stable. The regional economy maintains an unprecedented strong momentum of growth, and a framework of open and mutually beneficial cooperation based on equality and in diversified forms is taking shape in the region.”There are growing complexities in the Asia-Pacific security environment. There is a new adjustment going on in the strategic alignment and relations among major countries in the region, and new changes have occurred in the hotspots in the region.”The United States is accelerating its realignment of military deployment to enhance its military capability in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States and Japan are strengthening their military alliance in pursuit of operational integration. Japan seeks to revise its constitution and exercise collective self-defense. Its military posture is becoming more external-oriented.”Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face turbulence. The Middle East has become more volatile. A settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue is not yet in sight. Territorial disputes, conflicting claims over maritime rights and interests, and ethnic and religious discords undermine trust and cooperation among states. The threat of terrorism, separatism and extremism remains serious. In addition, some countries face growing internal problems caused by social and economic transition.”China’s overall security environment remains sound. China is committed to building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and a socialist harmonious society, and it enjoys steady economic growth, political stability, ethnic harmony and social progress. […] The Chinese government has taken a number of significant measures to improve relations across the Taiwan Straits, thus promoting cross-Straits relations toward peace and stability.”However, China’s security still faces challenges that must not be neglected. The growing interconnections between domestic and international factors and interconnected traditional and non-traditional factors have made maintaining national security a more challenging task.”The struggle to oppose and contain the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence” and their activities remains a hard one. By pursuing a radical policy for “Taiwan independence,” the Taiwan authorities aim at creating “de jure Taiwan independence” through “constitutional reform,” thus still posing a grave threat to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.”The United States has reiterated many times that it will adhere to the “one China” policy and honor the three joint communiques between China and the United States. But, it continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, and has strengthened its military ties with Taiwan.”A small number of countries have stirred up a racket about a “China threat,” and intensified their preventive strategy against China and strove to hold its progress in check. Complex and sensitive historical and current issues in China’s surrounding areas still affect its security environment.”
