Tuesday, March 07, 2006

QDR irritates China

Once again, a report by the US military has provoked a public display of ire in Beijing. This time, it is the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), published in February, in which the senior leadership of the Department of Defense (DoD) "sets out where the department currently is and the direction we believe it needs to go in fulfilling our responsibilities to the American people". The assessment is primarily concerned with what it calls "a long war" against terrorists, "currently... centred in Iraq and Afghanistan", but it also has something to say about the wider security environment, and in particular about China.

In the most recent QDR, the Pentagon has pinpointed the perceived threat from China far more specifically than in previous reports, and this alone is enough to be of concern to Beijing. Robert Sutter, professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University and former national intelligence officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US National Intelligence Council, told Jane's that the QDR reflects "continued strong US government (not just DoD) concern about China's military build-up and other policies seen as disruptive or potentially disruptive to international norms supported by the US government".


There's some more here.

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