DOD REPORT ON CHINA

ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE CHINA FOCUSES ON ITS MILITARY MIGHT

John Pomfret

The Washington Post, August 17, 2010

China is quickly modernizing its military and has set its sights on extending its influence deep into the Pacific and Indian oceans now that the military balance with its longtime nemesis, Taiwan, is tilting in its favor, the Defense Department reported Monday.

In its annual report to Congress on China's military, the Defense Department said that the People's Liberation Army is advancing across the board commensurate with China's burgeoning economic power. Coincidentally, the report was issued a day after China's economy was recognized as the world's second biggest, eclipsing Japan's in size during the second quarter of this year.

The report listed numerous areas in which China's military is on the march. China is deploying a new class of nuclear-powered submarines equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is pouring money into space warfare systems and cyberwarfare capabilities. It is developing a "carrier killer" anti-ship ballistic missile.

China has "the most active land-based ballistic and cruise missile program in the world," the report said. Beijing "now possesses one of the largest" forces of surface-to-air missiles in the world, it added. And it has the "largest force of principal combatants, submarines, and amphibious warfare ships in Asia."

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