China Rises: US Warns Beijing Is Expanding Its Military Power

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: China is pouring money into aircraft carriers, missiles, cyber warfare and "space dominance", a US Pentagon report has claimed.

China will have a modern military capable of force-projection and sustained high-intensity combat as early as the end of this decade, an annual Pentagon report into the state of China's armed forces has claimed.

New aircraft carriers, a stealth fighter program, carrier-killing ballistic missiles, improved cyberwarfare techniques and a doctrine of "space dominance" would all contribute to China's ambitious plans to modernise its 2.3million-strong People's Liberation Army.

The annual report comes as the US, Japan and several of China's smaller neighbours in the South China Sea voice concerns both about China's investment in offensive weapons technologies and Beijing's belligerent and bullying attitude towards regional disputes.

China rebuffed the 94-page report, accusing the Pentagon of "overlooking the country's peaceful defence policy" and "interfering" over Taiwan, the island that split from China in 1949 but that Beijing yearns to see re-united with mainland.

China's embassy in Washington described the report as "a reflection of Cold War mentality" that would needlessly be used to depict China as a threat and urged the US to "to work with China" to create healthy military ties between the two powers. Read on and comment » | Peter Foster, Beijing | Thursday, August 25, 2011

Russia in Ambitious Re-armament Push
THE TELEGRAPH: Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, yesterday vowed to defy Western attempts to isolate Moscow as he gave his backing to an ambitious re-armament programme.

Both Mr Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, resorted to the language of the Cold War as they pledged to increase defence spending by 50 per cent over the next three years.

But they also sought to portray Russia as the victim of Nato aggression.

As his parliament gave its support to the higher defence budget, Mr Medvedev accused the United States and its allies of seeking to isolate Russia behind "thick walls and an iron curtain."

The West's attempts to punish and pressure Russia for its invasion of Georgia last month would not deter the Kremlin from seeking to reassert the country's military might on the global stage, he warned.

Although his deputy foreign minister said that the possibility of war with the United States had been "ruled out", the president hinted that an aggressive Western response over the crisis in the Caucasus could prompt Russia to accelerate the re-armament process.

"We will continuously strengthen our national security, modernize the military and increase our defence capability to a sufficient level," Mr Medvedev said. "And we will determine what level is sufficient proceeding from the current situation." Russia Defies West with New Arms Spending >>> By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow | September 20, 2008

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