U.S. officials continue to push for greater transparency from Beijing in matters of defense spending, with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte echoing calls made last week by the vice president. The response from the Communist regime: Beijing announced defense spending would grow by 17.8 percent in FY 2007. Cheney’s comments last week, saying that such increases were “not consistent with China’s goal of a peaceful rise,” were answered by foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang:
The “peeping tom comparison” is only slightly more diplomatic than the last outburst by a Chinese official on this matter, which came from Sha Zukang, who last August said Washington should just “shut up and keep quiet” on the subject. For delivering that message, Sha got a promotion. No wonder then that Chinese officials are lining up to tell the Bush administration what they think of its concerns. Now China “demands” that the president stops the sale of weapons to Taiwan. The BBC quotes the same Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, on the Defense Department’s proposal to sell $421 million worth of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air missiles (AMRAM) and Maverick missiles to Taiwan.
If there is any danger to the stability of the Taiwan straits, it comes from China’s massive defense buildup, which the Washington Times reported just this week “includes five new strategic nuclear-missile boats and several advanced nuclear-powered attack submarines.”
