HONG KONG -- China is moving ahead with development of a new, more capable generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles, increasing its existing ability to deliver nuclear warheads to the United States and overwhelm missile defense systems, military analysts said this week.
Overall, China's steady strengthening of its military capabilities for conventional and nuclear warfare has long caused concern in Congress and among U.S. allies in East Asia -- particularly lately, as China has taken a more assertive position regarding territorial claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
The Global Times, a newspaper directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, reported Wednesday that China was developing the capability to put multiple warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. But the newspaper disputed a report in Jane's Defense Weekly that the latest Chinese ICBM, the Dongfeng-41, had already been tested last month.
When asked to comment, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart did not directly address the potential new Chinese missile capability, but said the United States "remains committed to maintaining healthy, stable, reliable and continuous military-to-military relations with China and regularly discusses ways to reduce tensions and build trust in the region."
Retired Army Col. Larry Wortzel, a former U.S. military intelligence officer who now sits on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a panel created by Congress, said China was developing the capability to put as many as 10 nuclear warheads on an ICBM, plus a series of dummy warheads. The dummy warheads would have heat and electromagnetic devices designed to trick missile defense systems into perceiving them as being as threatening as the actual warheads, he said.
International relations professor Sun Zhe at Beijing's Tsinghua University, a frequent U.S.-China commentator, said China was developing its military forces only to respond to continued efforts by other nations, particularly the United States, to continue improving their own. "We have again and again said that we will not be the first country to use nuclear force," he said. "We need to be able to defend ourselves, and our main threat, I'm afraid, comes from the United States."
China's development of long-range missiles is part of a much broader military expansion made possible by rapid budget growth in tandem with the Chinese economy, which had an output of $7.5 trillion last year, compared with $1.2 trillion in 2000.
The Pentagon estimates that China now has 55 to 65 ICBMs.
U.S. officials have said repeatedly that their main concern is North Korea, which has been testing long-range missiles and developing nuclear arms. But Chinese officials and experts have been suspicious that U.S. defense systems are aimed at their country's forces as well.
"I have no doubt that one of the goals of the missile defenses is to contain threats from North Korea, but objectively speaking, a high-tech expansion of U.S. military biceps impacts China, too," said international relations professor Shi Yinhong at Beijing's Renmin University, adding that discussions have occurred in China on whether to develop missile defense systems as well.
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12238/1256719-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml
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