Upgrade needed to deal with internal and external security threats
By
Tracy Quek, China Correspondent
Last March, the Chinese army was called in when Tibet was rocked by the worst anti-government rioting in decades. There was also a string of deadly attacks on police and civilians in Xinjiang last year. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - CONTINUING threats of containment from abroad and separatism at home make it imperative for China to continue to upgrade its military weaponry, said a senior defence official yesterday.
Despite years of double-digit growth in defence spending, China's military weaponry still falls short of the country's national security needs, Colonel Fan Jianjun, of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) armaments department, said.
There is 'still a large gap between the general level of armaments of China's military and those of the world's developed countries', he said at a press conference held to release China's latest defence policy white paper.
More development was needed, he urged, if China was to 'fully adjust to the needs of protecting national security and unity and better fulfil our international duties'.
The 95-page policy document covered areas such as the country's current security situation, defence expenditure, as well as efforts to upgrade its air, land and sea defences through scientific and technological innovation.
China's security has strengthened along with its economic growth and modernisation of its 2.3 million-strong armed forces, but the country still faces 'strategic manoeuvres and containment from the outside' as well as 'disruption and sabotage by separatist and hostile forces from the inside', the paper said.
Pro-independence forces in Taiwan, Tibet and the south-western region of Xinjiang 'pose threats to China's unity and security' and are among China's top concerns, it added.
'On this issue, there can be no compromise,' Defence Ministry spokesman Hu Changming said at the same conference.
Last March, the Chinese army was called in when Tibet was rocked by the worst anti-government rioting in decades. There was also a string of deadly attacks on police and civilians in Xinjiang last year.
The paper did not reveal any new spending figures for China's armed forces for this year. It said that from 1997 to 2007, China's annual military expenditure increased on average by 15.9 per cent year on year.
Last year, China announced a military budget of 417.8 billion yuan (S$922 million), a rise of 17.6 per cent from 2007.
The rise has caused concern among countries, including the United States and Japan which have pressed Beijing for greater transparency in its defence spending.
In recent years, China has added fighter jets, missiles, submarines and surface ships to its military arsenal. It showed off its naval capabilities during the recent deployment of a three-ship escort flotilla to pirate-infested waters off Somalia.
Some of China's advanced weaponry will be on display this year when Beijing holds a military dress parade in Tiananmen Square on Oct 1 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The parade will be 'solemn, enthusiastic but frugal'. It will showcase 'domestic weapons used by all branches of the armed forces', said Colonel Cai Huailie at the press briefing.
China has held 13 military parades in Beijing since 1949 but this year's will involve a wider range of arms and new weapons, said Col Cai, who is with the PLA operations department.
Despite China's increasing military capabilities, officials yesterday maintained that the country would adhere to a path of peaceful development.
Said Col Hu: 'Our policy of maintaining a defensive national defence and a defensive military strategy will never waver.'
