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Beijing. Beijing is unlikely to ever satisfy Washington’s hopes for greater military transparency, and tensions between their armed forces will remain, Chinese scholars said on Tuesday.

They spoke after the publication of an annual Pentagon report this week that said China was pursuing its goal of becoming a major military power in a secretive manner that “increases the potential for misunderstanding” and conflict with other nations.

Beijing-based scholars said the People’s Liberation Army had started to be more open but would continue to adhere to a different standard of transparency.

“Although China has steadily increased its military transparency over the past few years, it’s currently impossible for China to reach the level that the United States demands,” Shi Yinhong, an expert on the United States at Renmin University, said.

Long shrouded in secrecy, the PLA has in recent years issued its own reports on its makeup and mission and engaged with the armed forces of other nations through port visits, peacekeeping missions, and joint drills.

Diplomats said they hoped that would help calm fears over the motivations behind its military buildup.

However, top officers are believed to highly doubt the foreign policy benefits of greater transparency, especially with the United States, considered by Beijing as its greatest rival.

There was no immediate comment on the Pentagon report from China’s Foreign Ministry or the Ministry of National Defense, which manages the 2.3 million- member PLA.

The report’s release comes amid deep dissatisfaction in Beijing over United States-South Korea joint naval drills in the Yellow Sea.

China was also upset with the statements made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month regarding the need to maintain the freedom of navigation in South China Sea, a major waterway whose owner ship is being disputed by China and other Southeast Asian nations.

In January, Beijing suspended contacts with the US military as retaliation for a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-govern ing island China claims as its own territory.

The combination of issues has led to an “unprecedented surge” in tensions. Zhu Feng, an expert from the Peking University’s School of International Studies, believed however that the advantage of US military in terms of capability had kept the potential for actual conflict low.

“The Pentagon is fully aware that there’s a huge gap between the two countries’ military power. It is a joke to claim that China is going to attack American aircraft carriers,” Zhu said.

The Pentagon report said China was developing a ballistic missile capable of attacking aircraft carriers more than 1,500 kilometers away.

While final testing of the missile is believed to be a year or two away, some experts say it would take a decade more to attain accuracy.

The report added that China could start construction of its first aircraft carrier by the end of the year and had begun a program to train 50 pilots to operate fixed-wing aircraft from an aircraft carrier.

Experts say China appears to be building land-based mock-ups of a carrier flight deck and is also sending pilots to Russia for training.

Regarding Taiwan, which China has vowed to take by force if necessary, the document said the balance of forces continue to shift in Beijing’s favor.

United States law requires Washington to help ensure the island’s defense.

“The PLA is developing the capability to deter Taiwan independence or influence Taiwan to settle the dispute on Beijing’s terms while simultaneously attempting to deter, delay, or deny any possible US support for the island in case of conflict,” the report said.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry responded with a renewed call for the United States to sell the island F-16 C/D fighter jets and diesel submarines, two systems which have been at the top of its military wish list for most of this decade .


Associated Press