Source: The Financial Times                         Date: 06 April, 2011

China has raised concerns over attempts by other countries to contain its growing power, as the US seeks to boost its influence in the region. “Suspicion about China, interference and countering moves against China from the outside are on the increase,” Beijing said in a key military policy document released on Thursday last week, underscoring the growing friction in the Asia-Pacific region. The 2010 white paper was the first to be published since Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, angered Beijing by calling for a resolution of territorial disputes in the South China Sea involving China and its neighbors, in a speech at a regional summit last July.

The release of the biennial white paper also follows a string of stand-offs over regional security issues ranging from US military exercises in Asian waters to North Korea’s hostile acts against South Korea and flare-ups in territorial disputes between China and several of its neighbors. Its publication was delayed for more than two months over what military experts in Beijing said were China’s efforts to navigate the multiple issues it considered sensitive, and a desire to include any potential outcome from the visit of US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to Beijing, and of China’s President Hu Jintao to the US in January.

The recent publication of new military strategies from Japan and the US are also believed to have been reasons behind the long delay. “They wanted to carefully study these and the result has obviously been a policy document as uncontroversial as possible,” said a foreign defense official in Beijing.

In the document, China also reiterated previous warnings of “fierce” regional competition and an increasingly “volatile” security picture in Asia. “Major powers are stepping up the realignment of their security and military strategies, accelerating military reform and vigorously developing new ... military technologies.”

China started publishing the biennial white papers on its defense policy in 2000 in response to criticism from foreign militaries, especially the US, that it was not transparent enough about its armed forces. This year Beijing repeated its pledge of transparency, and said it would increase joint exercises and military exchanges with other countries. But the new document included even less detail on the armed forces than the last white paper. Introductions to the different services were shorter than in the 2008 paper, and Beijing did not address the development of key new weapons systems about which the US, Japan and several other neighbors are concerned.

The People’s Liberation Army has been overhauling an old aircraft carrier it purchased from Ukraine, and is expected to start using it for fighter aircraft training this year or next. However, the defense ministry evaded questions about the carrier program, according to a transcript of the press conference for the paper’s launch. The document did not contain any information on a new missile system designed to target US aircraft carriers in the region.

China said earlier in March that it would resume double-digit growth of its official defense spending this year. It has said this year’s military budget will be USD91.8 billion, 12.7 per cent higher than 2010. However, independent analysts believe the country is spending at least twice its officially declared amount.