In this Sept. 18, 2009 file photo, a military vehicle carrying a DF-21D carrier-killer missile, bottom, and other Chinese military vehicles head towards Tiananmen Square
(BEIJING) — The U.S. defense secretary says China's rapidly developing defense capabilities are worrisome to the United States. Robert Gates is on a long-awaited visit to Beijing to formally reopen military exchanges and is meeting Monday with his Chinese counterparts.
China has made strides in building a new stealth fighter jet, and Washington is also concerned about a new ballistic missile that could theoretically explode a U.S. aircraft carrier nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) out to sea. China has also apparently beaten U.S. estimates to develop that weapon.
Gates met Monday with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie and will remain in Beijing until Wednesday. He plans to meet with other top Chinese leaders, including president and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, who is himself scheduled to travel to the U.S. next week for a state visit.
Gates is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Beijing since 2000. His trip marks the official restoration of contacts with the Chinese military that were suspended by Beijing last year after the U.S. announced a $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan.
Gates told reporters traveling with him to Asia on Sunday that China had the potential to "put some of our capabilities at risk."
"We have to pay attention to them. We have to respond appropriately with our own programs," Gates said.
The United States has long known that China wanted to field a stealth jet, but development outpaced U.S. intelligence estimates, Gates said.
China is still years behind U.S. capabilities in radar-evading aircraft, and even by 2025 the United States would still have far more such aircraft flying than any other nation in the world, Gates said.
China says it does not pose a threat and its military forces are purely for defense — which by Beijing's definition includes deterring Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory, from declaring formal independence.
In an apparent nod to U.S. calls for more openness, China allowed video and pictures of last week's runway tests of its prototype stealth fighter to be taken and posted online.
Gates is trying to coax Chinese military leaders into more regular discussions with the U.S.
The Pentagon is focusing scarcer defense dollars on ways to counter the kinds of weapons China is now building. For example, Gates said recently that he wants to spend more on a new long-range nuclear bomber and updated electronics gear for the Navy that could throw an incoming missile off course.
Gates will also visit South Korea for talks about averting war with the North, as well as Japan, which is alarmed by Chinese military moves.
By: AP & Annie Gearan (Times magazine)
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