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China perceives a lot of security challenges in the region including on its border with India, a United States report claims.
"China does not currently perceive a global military threat, but instead sees a variety of regional security challenges: Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Diuoyu (Senaku) Islands, the Indian border, internal separatism and economic threats to China's modernisation strategy," a report, prepared as part of the US Central Intelligence Strategy, says.
China's military, with its expenditure (estimated by the US at $74.9 billion in 1997 against $53 billion in 1991), being the second highest in the world, views the probability of war to be declining with Russia, India and Vietnam, and increasing with the US and Japan. It also believes the possibility remains ever present with Taiwan and the South China Sea regional states, the report says.
"The goal of defence modernisation," the report says, quoting a Chinese source, "is to develop a nuclear weapons capability and space technology not inferior to any superpower, and to have a conventional military which matches that of any global power."
"A general trend, widespread in Chinese military writings, is the theme that 'land, sea, air and space warfare' must be highly integrated, not only in wars, but also in small-scale armed conflicts," the report says.
In the 1990s, Chinese military thinkers began to focus on the components of the American revolution in military affairs -- precision strike, information operations, power projection, and mobility, the report says.
Drawing on foreign military thoughts, the Chinese worked to assimilate these insights into their culture, while developing a modern armed force with distinguishing Chinese characteristics.
China has a large and diversified defence industrial base, with the capacity for indigenous production of major weapons systems. It can produce relatively complex military equipment in particular areas, such as combat aircrafts, surface-to-air missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, says the report.
At the same time, Beijing continues to rely heavily on foreign design inputs for advanced and complex systems.
China, fully understanding the significance of advanced performance weaponry, faces certain difficulties. It has a relatively low level of scientific and technical capability to produce such weaponry across the board, the report adds.
Modernisation of the defence industrial base would be very expensive. Given the huge commercial opportunities, young and talented scientific workers fail to get attracted to the defence industries.
However, the Chinese are relying upon advances in science and technology. They are striving to make the transition from a numerically superior type military force to one where quality and efficiency are the guidelines, says the report.
PTI
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