Washington: A top Chinese general on Monday defended Beijing`s rapid military modernisation, including the development of advanced weapons that threaten US forces in the Pacific, as aimed at meeting its minimum defence requirements.
General Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China`s military commission, sought to allay US suspicions over the growing might of the Asian superpower by insisting that Beijing harboured no expansionist ambitions and wanted collaborative international relations.
"We will never seek hegemony, military expansion or an arms race," he told an audience of foreign policy experts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
But when asked about its development of missiles designed to target US warships in the Pacific, Xu said Western suspicions about China`s aims were unfounded.
"It is a limited capability, and limited weapons and equipment for the minimum requirement of its national security," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
Xu also defended China`s double-digit annual increases in defence spending as "quite low" both in real terms and as a percentage of its gross domestic product.
Whereas US defence spending amounts to 4.8 percent of GDP, China`s was only 1.4 percent, he said.
The United States has repeatedly urged China to be more transparent about its military spending, warning of a shifting balance of power in the region.
Xu portrayed the Peoples Liberation Army as focused primarily on protecting China`s economic development and defending against separatist and extremist challenges, which he said are clearly on the rise.
The general is scheduled to meet US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday on a visit that will also take him to US military bases and installations around the country -- the latest in on-again, off-again efforts by the two countries to improve often tense relations.
The visit comes ahead of President Barack Obama`s first trip to China November 15-18.
Xu said China wanted to invigorate military-to-military relations with the United States, but warned that Beijing regarded recent incursions into its 200-mile economic zone by US naval vessels as an infringement of its sovereignty.
But he said US-China relations had undergone a "smooth transition" since Obama took office, moving ties between the two countries to a new stage.
Bureau Report
