National Missile Defense systems - Currents - Brief Article

New Internationalist, Oct, 2002

China

CONTAINING China is the key to US foreign policy in the region. The Bush Administration has declared the country a 'strategic competitor', a description difficult to reconcile with China's military budget when compared with that of the US. Though China's 2002-03 military budget of $3.04 billion is 17.6-per-cent higher than that of the previous year, this is still a fraction of the US 2001 defence budget of $344 billion. While the US overestimates China's military capacity, China sees itself as threatened by aggressive US foreign policy.

China is particularly concerned about the concentration of National Missile Defense systems (NMD - see box) that could soon be built around it. The Chinese Government sees NMD as an attempt to isolate the country within Asia, a fear fuelled by the fact that the Bush Administration has encouraged some of China's traditional enemies - Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and even Russia - to he involved in the construction of the system. China has made it clear that it will not be intimidated by Bush's plans for NMD. As a consequence, the US believes China may increase its missile build-up in a defiant response.

Sources: www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/news01/bmd-010502b.htm www.afsc.org/riero.pesp/jgswed.htm www.chinatoday.com/arm; english.peopledaily.com.cn/200207/23/eng2002o723_00193.shtml