China’s weapons are increasingly cutting-edge, warns Pentagon
CHINA’S military is beginning to possess some of the world’s most advanced weapons systems, according to a Pentagon report published this week.
It comes as the US and Britain announced that they had conducted their first joint naval drills in the disputed South China Sea.
The Pentagon found that China, the world’s second-largest economy, was at the cutting edge of modern technologies and on the cusp of harnessing hypersonic weapons including missiles that could fly at many times the speed of sound.
The unclassified report from the US Defense Intelligence Agency found that Beijing had made enormous advances, partly thanks to domestic laws that required foreign partners to share technical secrets in exchange for access to Chinese markets – and as a result of “acquiring technology by any means available.”
Western nations have long accused China of espionage and stealing military and trade secrets to get ahead. China is also developing mediumrange and long-range stealth bombers that could be operational within six years.
“In some areas, it already leads the world,” said the report, which added that such increased military might would “enable China to impose its will in the region”. However, it noted that China’s military lacked real-world experience in handling conflicts, as it had not fought a war in four decades.
The Pentagon report further detailed American concerns that increased military capability could add to the possibility of an attack on Taiwan.
Taiwan severed ties with mainland China during the civil war in 1949 and maintains its own currency, flag and government. China has long held that the island must be reunited with the mainland.
Earlier this month, Xi Jinping, China’s president, made it clear that Beijing would not rule out the use of force to take back the self-ruled island. Mr Xi also recently called on the military always to be combat-ready.
It was the main motivation for China to improve its weapons systems, said the Pentagon. “Beijing’s longstanding interest to eventually compel Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland and deter any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence has served as the primary driver for China’s military modernisation,” the report continued.
Under Donald Trump, the US president, Washington has bolstered ties with Taiwan with arms sales and increased communication between officials, a move that has angered Beijing.
But China yesterday scoffed at the report. Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokesman, described it as “full of Cold War ideology and zero-sum game thinking.”
He added: “We use rules rather than weapons to safeguard and promote our own interests.”
The report was released against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing on everything from trade to human rights, and as the US and Britain concluded their first joint naval drills.
An American navy guided missile destroyer, USS Mccampbell, and a Royal Navy frigate, HMS Argyll, conducted six days of communications drills until yesterday, “to address common security priorities,” a US Navy spokesman said in a statement.
No such joint drills had been conducted there since at least 2010, he added. The exercise came after another British warship, the 22,000-ton HMS Albion, sailed close to the disputed Paracel islands – claimed by China but also by Taiwan and Vietnam – in August.
It was the first time Britain had directly challenged China’s growing control of the strategic waterway and came after the US said it would like to see more international participation in such action. Beijing accused London of engaging in “provocation”.