China defends arms budget, Taiwan warns of missiles

Beijing/Taipei, Mar 7: China's foreign minister today (Mar 7, 2006) sought to deflect concerns over the announcement of another double-digit rise in the military budget, saying the country spent far less than the United States.

The defence came as self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and has threatened to recover by force, said that China has accumulated nearly 800 missiles capable of bombing the island for 10 hours, and warned the threat is increasing rapidly.

China at the weekend unveiled a 14.7 per cent jump in 2006 defence spending compared to the previous year, or a total of 283.8 billion yuan, amid renewed tension across potential regional flashpoint the Taiwan Strait.

The rise is the latest of a succession of double-digit increases in military spending. US defence officials and many analysts have said Beijing in fact spends much more on military equipment and forces than the official budget shows.

Much of that spending is aimed at boosting a force numerically large but lacking in modern equipment and professionalism, one of whose main missions could be to force Taiwan into unification with China.

''The military expenditure of China, though increased somewhat, is way less than the military expenditure of the country where you come from,'' Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told a US reporter at a news briefing in Beijing.

Li pointed out that China's military spending, in per capita terms, was just 1/77 of that of the United States, adding that China would only use weapons in defence.

''China's national defence policy is transparent, it is completely defensive in nature,'' he told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of parliament.

But in Taipei, Taiwan's Defence Ministry told reporters that China was adding its arsenal of ballistic missiles at between 75-100 a year, up from 50 previously.

''They are capable of launching 5 waves of attacks and intensive bombardment for 10 hours continuously,'' Chen Chang-hwa from the ministry's intelligences office told reporters.

''They can attack airports, power plants and other facilities,'' Chen said as he showed a satellite picture of a missile commend centre in eastern Jiangxi.

Relations have been strained since Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian scrapped the island's National Unification Council and its 15-year-old guidelines on eventual unification with the mainland. Chinese President Hu Jintao labelled the move a ''grave provocation''.

The Taiwan issue has also been a thorn in the side of Sino-US relations, as Washington is the island's main arms supplier, much to Beijing's chagrin, a fact acknowledged by Li.

''The Taiwan question is the biggest factor influencing Sino-US relations,'' Li said, adding that he hoped the United States would not ''give the wrong messages to Taiwan''.

The United States recognises the mainland as China's sole legitimate government the ''one-China'' policy but in a deliberately ambiguous piece of foreign policy it is also obliged by law to help Taiwan defend itself.

Beijing and Taipei have been rivals since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to attack the democratic island of 23 million people if it formally declares independence.

REUTERS