Rice: China's military build-up 'outsized'

The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.

Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and on extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest fighting force.

Its reported military budget rose more than 14% this year to £18.6bn (€27bn), but outside estimates of China’s true spending are up to three times that level.

“There are concerns about China’s military build-up,” Ms Rice told a television interviewer from Hanoi, Vietnam, where she is attending a regional economic summit with US President George W. Bush. “It sometimes seems outsized for China’s regional role.”

Beijing insists its build-up is defensive, but it has alarmed some Asian neighbours and US military planners who see China as a potential threat to US military pre-eminence in the Pacific.

Asked whether US foreign policy towards China is aimed at containing China’s ability to flex military power, Ms Rice turned the question to politics and economics.

“US policy is aimed at having China be a responsible stakeholder in international politics,” she replied. “That means that Chinese energy, Chinese growth, Chinese incredible innovation and entrepreneurship, would be channelled into an international economy in which everybody can compete and compete equally.”

Ms Rice said China’s economic growth “has been a net gain for the international system.” But she also ticked off a list of US concerns including questions of economic fairness and China’s record on human rights.