US State Department, SINGAPORE: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has questioned the degree of China's military buildup at a time when, he says, it faces no threat from any other nation.
Rumsfeld made his comments in a speech June 4 at a regional security conference in Singapore — a talk in which he saluted the march of freedom and democracy in Asia and the cooperation between many nations in the region and the United States.
The defense secretary told a plenary session sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies that a report his department has prepared for Congress concludes that China's defense expenditures are much greater than Chinese officials have acknowledged.
Indeed, he said, China's military budget appears to be the third largest in the world, and clearly the largest in Asia.
“China appears to be expanding its missile forces, allowing them to reach targets in many areas of the world, not just the Pacific region, while also expanding its missile capabilities within this region,” Rumsfeld said.
“Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?” Rumsfeld asked.
The secretary also expressed concern that, while China's economic growth has kept pace with its military spending, “it is to be noted that a growth in political freedom has not yet followed suit.”
He said that embracing a system that encouraged enterprise and free expression would make China “more a welcome partner” and put it on the road toward achieving “the political and economic benefits to which its people aspire.”
One specific contribution that China can make toward a peaceful resolution of regional issues is to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks it has abandoned, Rumsfeld suggested.
In that and many other areas “multilateral engagement is vital,” and “China can be an important part of that cooperation,” he said.
Rumsfeld used his speech as an opportunity to salute many of the region's nations for their steady march toward political freedom and economic success.
Sixty years after the devastation of World War II, “the nations of the Asia-Pacific region are among the world's fastest-growing centers for opportunity, for prosperity, and for knowledge,” he said.
He cited the host country of Singapore as “one excellent example… of economic success,” Japan as “one of the world's model democracies” and the Republic of Korea as “an example of the dynamism of free people and free markets.”
Lauding the growing role of international cooperative efforts, he praised Asian-Pacific nations for their part in relief efforts after the tsunami last December that killed more than 170,000 in Southeast Asia. And he pledged that “whenever friends and allies in this region confront threats or hardship,” the United States would “stand at their side.”
Rumsfeld called for cooperation to deal with the “lethal threats” posed by weapons proliferation and “violent extremists determined to destabilize civilized societies and kill men, women and children.”
He warned, as well, of the threat posed by “the specter of trade barriers… that can impede economic progress and, in turn, can threaten democratic governance”
Rumsfeld observed, “It may seem a bit unusual for a Secretary of Defense to speak about trade. But because security, and economic opportunity, and political reform are so interdependent, any one of the three is unlikely to endure and succeed without the others.”
