US concerned over China’s new weapons
US: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates Saturday voiced concern over
China’s latest hi-tech weaponry and called for improving uneasy military
relations with Beijing to help defuse tensions.
Speaking to reporters en route to Beijing for three days of talks,
Gates said the Chinese appeared to have made more progress in building
its first stealth fighter jet than previously thought and that an
anti-ship missile posed a potential threat to the US military. “They
clearly have the potential to put some of our capabilities at risk. And
we have to pay attention to them, we have to respond appropriately with
our own programs,” Gates said.
But he said the advances in weaponry underlined the importance of
building a dialogue with the Chinese military, and said his visit
starting Sunday hopefully would lay the ground for deeper US defense
ties with Asia’s rising power.
“My hope is that through the strategic dialogue that I’m talking
about that maybe the need for some of these capabilities is reduced,”
Gates said.
With Chinese President Hu Jintao due in Washington for a pivotal
state visit on January 19, both sides are anxious to show progress in
defense ties, which China has repeatedly suspended over US arms sales to
Taiwan. “It’s pretty clear the Chinese wanted me to come before
President Hu visits Washington,” Gates said. “My own view is a positive,
constructive, comprehensive relationship between the United States and
China is not just in the mutual interests of the two countries, it’s in
the interest of everybody in the region and I would say across the
globe.” Days before the US defense chief’s highly symbolic trip,
photographs appeared showing a prototype of China’s first stealth
fighter, the J-20, at an airfield in the southwest. “We knew they were
working on a stealth aircraft,” Gates said when asked about the
warplane. “What we’ve seen is they may be somewhat further along in the
development of that aircraft than our intelligence had predicted,” he
said.
But he added, “there is some question about just how stealthy” the
new fighter really is. Gates said he had been concerned about China’s
pursuit of “anti-ship, cruise and ballistic missiles ever since I took
this job” four years ago.
AFP
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