Pentagon report eyes China's cyberwarfare, antisatellite programs

Chinese authorities say assessment of Chinese military distorted facts.

By Julien Spencer

posted March 04, 2008 at 10:36 am EST

China's military expansion is continuing unabated, putting regional stability at risk as the military expands its space and cyberwarfare programs, warned the US Pentagon Monday in its annual report on China's military power. Chinese officials called into question the report's facts, saying it reflected "cold-war thinking."

According to the US Department of Defense transcripts, David Sedney, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for East Asia, said,

"The real story is the continuing development, the continuing modernization, the continuing acquisition of capabilities and the corresponding and unfortunate lack of understanding, lack of transparency about the intentions behind those and the way they're going to be deployed."

The report says that "a potential military confrontation with Taiwan, and the prospect of U.S. military intervention, remain the PLA's [People's Liberation Army] most immediate military concerns." The BBC says that's raised international concern about a possible regional conflict.

This year's rise in military spending "will mark the 20th consecutive year that the Chinese military budget has increased by double digits," Japan's defence ministry said in a statement.

It called on China to "address the concerns of the international community."

US officials are particularly worried that China's growing military might could be aimed at Taiwan, a self-governing island which Beijing sees as part of its territory.

The New York Times says that space defense programs were the most notable military development identified by the report:

The report said "writings" by the Chinese military "emphasize the necessity of 'destroying, damaging and interfering with the enemy's reconnaissance/observation and communications satellites.' " Such writings suggest that those satellites, and navigation and early-warning satellites, "could be among initial targets of attack to blind and deafen the enemy," it said.

However, the analysis comes just weeks after the US shot down one of its own spy satellites, claiming that the toxic fuel load posed a potential danger to populated areas. According to Al Jazeera, US accusations against China for its military space program have been weakened because of its own satellite maneuver:

China and Russia both raised objections to the operation, hinting that the US was using the excuse of the potentially toxic propellant as a cover for testing its own anti-satellite weapons.

Among other new developments, cyberwarfare was also pinpointed as a crucial new battlefield being explored by the Chinese, says The Military Family Network:

Of particular concern to Defense Department officials is the country's ability to use cyberspace to attack computer networks. Several "intrusions" around the world in which a computer network is infiltrated and information gathered, Sedney said, have been sourced back to China. None of the intrusions were into classified material, Sedney said.

Indeed, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, which calls cyberwarfare "the new frontier," China already possesses a well-developed and offensive cyberthreat:

Washington has accused the Chinese of hacking into government computer networks at the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, and Defense – in some instances making off with data. Chinese electronic espionage has also been suspected against British companies (Rolls Royce is one example), as well as government agencies in France, Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan.

According to the Pentagon, this year, China has also expanded its traditional arms base, reports the Financial Times:

The report said China was continuing to develop its strategic nuclear forces by fielding long-range ballistic missiles. It was improving the range of its capabilities with the estimated development of five Jin-class submarines capable of launching long-range nuclear missiles.

However, CNN says the report shows Chinese military spending still remains far below that of the US military:

The annual report from the Pentagon to Congress says China's total military spending in 2007 was between $97 billion and $139 billion, but it is hard to tell exactly how much was spent and on what. In comparison, the U.S. military budget request for 2008 is $481.4 billion, not including war requests.

But Voice of America reports that the Chinese military is calling on its government to expand their budget:

China's own military newspaper last week called on Beijing to increase defense spending to make up for what it called "historic shortfalls" in the 1980's and 1990's. China's Liberation Army Daily warned of grave consequences if the spending increases do not continue.

Chinese authorities responded by saying the Pentagon report distorted the facts, reports Reuters. The authorities also denied engaging in cyberwarfare.

"This U.S. report advocates the China threat theory and is seriously not in accordance with the facts and interferes in China's internal affairs," [Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang] Qin told a news conference.

"We demand the U.S. abandons Cold War thinking and correctly recognizes China and China's development and revises the mistaken ways of the report," he added. "We are extremely dissatisfied."

While Chinese military expansion has long worried the US military establishment, this report comes as military relations between the two countries have warmed from a 2001 low following the collision of a Chinese fighter jet with a US spy plane. Last week, the two countries agreed to set up a military hot line for communicating in emergencies and China agreed to hand over sensitive records on American servicemen missing since the 1950-53 Korean War.

But, as the Financial Times reports, a possible crisis never appears too far away:

Relations were on the verge of detonation in November after Beijing denied the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier permission to dock at Hong Kong. But the US has toned down rhetoric over the incident to avoid a crisis.