Washington's plan to expand an advanced missile-defence system in Asia
is directed at Pyongyang, not Beijing, the US State Department said on
Thursday.
However, military experts in both
the United States and China questioned the US' intentions, saying the expensive
system, which is well beyond Pyongyang’s military capability, is actually
"looking at China".
The Chinese military also called
for the US to handle anti-missile issues with great discretion and avoid
"letting its own state security take priority over other countries’
national security".
The Wall Street Journal’s front-page
story on Thursday talked about Pentagon plans to put a second X-Band
early-warning radar in southern Japan to complement one that has been in the
country’s north since 2006.
It said the US military has also
been evaluating sites in Southeast Asia for a third X-Band radar to create an
arc that would allow the US and its regional allies to "more accurately
track any ballistic missiles launched from (the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea), as well as from parts of China".
Some US defence officials said
the Philippines, which is at odds with China on territorial issues, is a
potential site for the third radar.
Martin Dempsey, chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed later on Thursday that the US is in
discussions with Japan on the issue.
"It’s certainly a topic of
conversation because missile defence is important to both of our nations,"
Dempsey said at the start of a meeting with his visiting Japanese counterpart,
Shigeru Iwasaki, at the Pentagon.
Victoria Nuland, a spokesperson
for the US State Department, said on Thursday the missile defence work is not
directed at China.
"They are designed against a
missile threat" from North Korea, she said, adding that the system is a
defensive one, and that Washington has told Beijing about it.
"We do have regular
conversations with China ... We are quite open and transparent about what it is
that we’re doing and why," she said at the daily news briefing.
The People’s Liberation Army’s
deputy chief of general staff, General Cai Yingting, started a US visit this
week, which follows one in May by Defence Minister Liang Guanglie. It is not
clear whether the anti-missile system is being discussed during Cai’s visit.
However, China’s Ministry of
National Defence on Thursday said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal
that "China has always believed that anti-missile issues should be handled
with great discretion, from the perspective of protecting global strategic
stability and promoting strategic mutual trust among all countries.
"We advocate that all
parties fully respect and be mindful of the security concerns of one another
and try to realize overall safety through mutual benefit and win-win efforts,
while avoiding the situation in which one country tries to let its own state
security take priority over other countries’ national security."
Beijing objected to the first
X-Band deployment in Japan in 2006. Moscow also voiced similar concerns about
the system in Europe and the Middle East.
"The focus of our rhetoric
is (the DPRK)," Steven Hildreth, a missile-defence expert with the
Congressional Research Service, an advisory arm of the US Congress, told the
Wall Street Journal.
In April, Pyongyang launched a
rocket that blew up less than two minutes into its flight.
"The reality is that we’re
also looking longer-term at the elephant in the room, which is China,"
Hildreth said.
Jonathan Pollack, Asia-Pacific
security expert at the Brookings Institution, said that in theory, this new
radar expansion will have the capabilities to go well beyond the defence of
Japan.
In order to prevent a major
potential escalation of that kind of competition in East Asia, "for this
reason alone, I believe there is a pressing priority for the next president of
the United States, either President (Barack) Obama or Governor (Mitt) Romney,
to open a series of discussions with China about issues of missile
defence," he said.
The US presidential election will
be in early November, and the winner will be sworn into office on January 20.
Li Qinggong, deputy secretary of
the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, said the radar arc can
look at missiles launched from coastal area of China.
"The early-warning radar is
the key part of an anti-missile system. It can detect a launched missile, as
well as determine its trajectory and model.
"It will be like killing a
fly with a bazooka if it is used to contain Pyongyang. I believe it is mainly aimed
at detecting China’s missiles."
The Wall Street Journal report
said Washington is concerned over the growing imbalance of power across the
Taiwan Straits.
However, Yin Zhuo, a
Beijing-based military expert, said "the US won’t spend so much energy on
Taiwan, to implement ballistic missiles, interceptor missiles and GPS radars
everywhere.
"Just a GPS radar costs more
than US$1 billion," Yin said, adding that Taiwan is just one of the many
considerations in the programme.
"And to "protect"
Taiwan is just a move for the US to deal with China, not an ultimate
goal."
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com
No comments:
Post a Comment