U.S. 'exaggerates' China's defense

U.S. 'exaggerates' China's defense
POSTED: 0306 GMT (1106 HKT), November 30, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States has been exaggerating China's nuclear clout in a process that could lock the two into a Cold War-style arms race, two arms-control advocacy groups said in a report on Thursday.

The Defense Department and U.S. intelligence agencies have portrayed Chinese weapons developments as more threatening than warranted, to justify building a new generation of weapons, according to the study by the Federation of American Scientists and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The report's main finding is that the Pentagon and others routinely highlight specific incidents out of context that inaccurately portray a looming Chinese threat," the groups said in a statement.

Specifically, they said, the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence agencies had been "embellishing China's submarine and long-range missile capabilities."

China, in turn, views U.S. arms upgrades as a reason for modernizing its arsenal, said the 250-page report, which is based on an analysis of declassified and unclassified U.S. government documents as well as commercial satellite images of Chinese installations.

That could pitch the two into "a dangerous action-and-reaction competition reminiscent of the Cold War," the two groups said.

"Military planners always need a rationale -- a real or potential danger -- for why they must have new weapons or new strategies and plans," said the study, "Chinese Nuclear Forces and U.S. Nuclear War Planning."

"With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which occupied that role for almost 50 years, the United States has turned its attention to China to help fill the vacuum," it said.

The report faulted China for cloaking its nuclear forces in secrecy amid what it portrayed as a U.S. government scare campaign bolstered by conservative media and think tanks.

The Pentagon and the office of the Director of National Intelligence had no immediate comment.

'Realistic picture'
Larry Wortzel, outgoing chairman of a congressionally created bipartisan panel that studies U.S.-China security issues, said he thought the Pentagon had painted a "realistic picture of what China is doing in the nuclear arena."

Beijing has been developing new generations of mobile ballistic missiles, experimenting with maneuverable warheads and multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles as well as "developing countermeasures that make its nuclear force a more serious threat," he said in reply to a query from Reuters.

The U.S. arsenal of about 10,000 nuclear weapons dwarfed China's roughly 200 and would continue to do so, the report said.

In a long-range planning study put out in February, the Pentagon voiced alarm at China's investments in "sophisticated land and sea-based (nuclear strike) systems" and said Beijing's buildup put a premium on developing U.S. forces "capable of sustained operations at great distances into denied areas."

China has about 20 ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental United States; the United States has more than 830 missiles -- most with multiple warheads -- that can hit China, it added.

"China is no Soviet Union," said Robert Norris, a Natural Resources Defense Council analyst and a report co-author. He said the Pentagon had been using China to justify buying new missiles, destroyers, submarines and fighter planes.

Hans Kristensen, project director at the Federation of American Scientists and the report's lead author, told Reuters, "The hype has occurred, as far as we can see, in the assessments of the size of the Chinese nuclear arsenal, predicting and reporting when new systems will be deployed, and in 'cherry-picking' dramatic new developments taken out of context that overstate a threat."

Click to expand...

Spike said:

Don't know if this has been posted elsewhere. From CNN:



"Sophisticated sea based systems"? Does China have subs capable of launching nukes into the continental US? Do they even have subs that would make it across the ocean?

Click to expand...

mvmccorry said:

The American ruling class have an agenda of neo-conservative global domination, propoganda the tool to fix the minds of the people, with all the nukes in the world it's M.A.D to even consider a nuclear war. spys and disinformation are surly greater weapons than open war. nukes are old news, a 200 megatonn tidal wave would take out alot land. conventional warfare is replaced with tech industies.

suppose a genetically engineered virus is set on the enemy, the side with the cure could walk into the enemy country and start over like nothing ever happened.

any secret made public must be worthless or propoganda.

china has inter continental ballistic subs right!?

Edit: right

Click to expand...

Sea Dog said:

It's also a complete misrepresentation of America. OK, you hate the USA, the Bush Administration, and 'neocons'. But claiming that the USA and it's taxpayers pour these huge amounts of money for this type of evil is insulting.

since when have America tax payers had the right to decide what the CIA does? never. it's a contradiction that an organisation has the right to do whatever it wants, overthrow governments etc and still the taxpayers have the "we" mentality. the CIA may be considered as representing American interests but it does not represent yours as an American citizen so dont get all insulted. Nationism may blind some people from the truth of a balenced moral code of conduct but it's not an insult. we as citizens have no power to affect the mega rich. they own us. As a UK citizen i love this country but that does not mean i blindly agree with whatever Tony Blair says and does, just because i hear the national anthem in the back ground.

the real power behind the information is shrouded in mystery and rarly in the public domain. within 100 years people will be selecting the genes of their children. do you think a government so besotted with global domination wouldn't dream of something like a virus attack? or a clone army? we can agree to differ on that. personally i dont hate America, i do hate hysteria and flag worship.

after WWII it was discovered the "evil" nazis had been testing on jews, so what does america do with the scientists?? give them a whole building to further the reasearch. and here we are with the human genome. great!? these scientists have the rational that their actions do not nessaserily require a moral context, and who cares, it's all in the name of progress, right.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

mvmccorry said:

after WWII it was discovered the "evil" nazis had been testing on jews, so what does america do with the scientists?? give them a whole building to further the reasearch. and here we are with the human genome. great!? these scientists have the rational that their actions do not nessaserily require a moral context, and who cares, it's all in the name of progress, right.

Click to expand...