China defends military budget hike, vows to disclose more info

Asian Political News, March 25, 2002

TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo

China defended its policy of boosting its military budget for 2002 on Monday, saying the size is much smaller than that of industrialized countries, but pledged to disclose more information on its contents in response to Japan's concerns, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

During bilateral vice-ministerial security talks held in Tokyo, Chinese representatives said they will make efforts to improve transparency on the use of the military budget after Japanese officials told them China's lack of accountability on budget details makes its neighbors apprehensive, the official said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Toshiyuki Takano and Kohei Masuda, deputy director of the Defense Agency's secretariat, represented Japan at the talks, while the Chinese team was headed by Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Jiang Hong, deputy director in charge of foreign affairs at the National Defense Ministry.

China said it plans to raise its military budget by some 25 billion yuan to 135 billion yuan ($20 billion) in 2002, but the size is only 5% of the U.S. defense budget and half of Japan's defense expenditure, according to the official.

Chinese officials also said the budget will include pension payments to retired officers and stipends to soldiers' families and that per-capita expenditures are small because the budget will cover some 2.5 million people, the official said.

The ministry official also said Chinese officials reiterated Beijing's request to Japan to deal carefully with the case of a suspicious ship which sank in the East China Sea last December following a shoot-out with Japanese patrol vessels.

They also asked Japan to provide information on the ship to China, he said.

The unidentified ship sank in China's exclusive economic zone. Tokyo is considering raising the ship to clarify its origin and purpose of sailing.

The delegation also expressed displeasure at media reports in Japan that a ship similar to the unidentified vessel had docked at a port near Shanghai, the official said, quoting a delegate as saying the Japanese press are ''widely spreading disinformation.''

Japan alleges the ship was North Korean and engaged in espionage or drug running. North Korea denies having any connection with the ship but denounced its sinking as an ''act of piracy.''

Japanese officials told Chinese representatives that they are concerned about proliferation of China's weapons of mass destruction, while Chinese officials expressed apprehension about Japan's military actions, saying they have increased since the end of the Cold War, according to the official.

The two countries also agreed to prepare for Japanese Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani's trip to China and Chinese warships' first visit to a Japanese port as part of bilateral defense cooperation, he said.

The bilateral security talks have been held on an annual basis since 1993. The two countries, however, skipped the event last year. The representation was upgraded from senior official level to vice-ministerial rank based on an accord in October 2000 to reinforce security and defense dialogue.