China's military build-up causes concern

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Washington, Nov 22 (UNI) China's military buildup includes new missiles and naval weapons designed to sink US aircraft carriers and deny American forces access to the Asia-Pacific region, reports the Washington Times quoting a congressional commission official.

Daniel Blumenthal, a former Pentagon defense policy-maker and now a member of the US-China Economic Security Review Commission, said yesterday that China's military was building up forces to ''deny the United States the use of the commons -- the sea, the air, cyber and space.'' ''The Chinese have been quite successful in the area of sea denial, meaning that if we sent a carrier to or outside the [Taiwan] Strait as we did in 1996, it would be a lot riskier and a lot costlier to the United States,'' Mr Blumenthal said at a conference held at the Heritage Foundation.

The comments followed disclosure last week that a Chinese submarine sailed undetected to within five miles of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk near Okinawa, Japan, and surfaced close enough to fire wake-homing torpedos or anti-ship cruise missiles, according to US defense officials.

The Navy said in response to the surprise encounter that it is reviewing anti-submarine warfare defenses for the carrier battle group. The carrier was engaged in exercises when the Song-class submarine surfaced October 26.

China's government denied that the submarine encounter took place, but Adm Gary Roughead, commander of the Navy's Pacific Fleet, had said in Beijing that Chinese military leaders he met told him the submarine was in international waters when it was near the carrier.

Mr Blumenthal, commenting on the release of the China commission's latest annual report, said Chinese weapons include 10 different types of ballistic and cruise missiles and up to 800 missiles aimed at Taiwan, five different types of submarines and 15 types of new warships.

UNI XC SB KP1837

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