Warning on Beijing's arms spending

Warning on Beijing's arms spending
By Virginia Marsh in Sydney
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: July 6 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 6 2007 03:00


The pace and scope of China's military modernisation could create "misunderstanding and instability" in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia has warned in one of Canberra's toughest public statements yet on Beijing's growing strategic ambitions.

In a defence policy blueprint released yesterday by John Howard, the prime minister, Canberra highlights Australia's strengthening military ties with Japan and warns that the strategic competition be-tween the US and China needs to be carefully managed for the good of the Asia-Pacific region.

The new policy document reflects what some commentators consider a shift in Australian defence policy to emphasise trilateral ties with the US and Japan, a development arousing suspicion in Beijing.

While Australia has been the US's strongest military and political ally in the Asia-Pacific region since 1945, Canberra has been assiduous in recent years in building up a broad relationship with Beijing.

"It appears that [the Howard government] is moving to a policy under pressure from Washington and Tokyo to be less welcoming of China's growing power," said Hugh White, of the Australian National University. "I think that China will be very uncomfortable with it."

The defence blueprint, Australia's first since 2005, labels China's development of new capabilities such as the anti-satellite missile it tested in January as "disruptive" and says the region has benefited from the US being the predominant military power.

It warns against a change in the regional status quo, saying: "As China and India grow, and the United States rebalances its global commitments, power relations will change, and as this happens there is always a possibility of strategic miscalculation."

Responding to the paper in Beijing, the foreign ministry said: "The Chinese government has repeatedly stated that China will be unwavering in taking the peaceful course of development."

Australia has reacted swiftly to Japan's increased willingness to involve itself directly in global and regional security, a development that has altered regional dynamics.

In March, Mr Howard, whose government will this year raise defence spending by 10.6 per cent, signed a historic security co-operation pact with Shinzo Abe, his Japanese counterpart, and since then Canberra has held trilateral security talks with Washington and Tokyo. It is examining how it could contribute to a US-led regional ballistic missile defence system.

The three-way grouping has also opened a defence dialogue with India, with which Australia signed a security co-operation accord last year.

The paper says of Japan, formerly its most bitter wartime enemy: "Australia has no closer nor more valuable partner in the region . . . Australia welcomes its efforts to contribute more directly to regional and global stability."

The talks with India, aimed potentially at forming a quadrilateral security pact, have angered China, in particular, and in May it sent a formal diplomatic protest to the countries. Within Australia, the potential pact has been labelled by some commentators as smacking of outdated, cold war-style containment.