Beijing yesterday demanded that America stop airborne espionage along the Chinese coast
Beijing yesterday demanded that America stop airborne espionage along the Chinese coast. Washington replied: "No." Intelligence flights will continue, and the commitment to support Taiwan will be fulfilled. These contradictions dispelled the Pentagon’s hopes of expanding ties with the Chinese military. Moreover, according to the Carnegie Center, China does not intend to disclose information about its nuclear forces.China warned the US that American aircraft raids near its coast undermined trust between the two powers and turned into an obstacle to establishing ties between them along a military line. "We demand that the United States respect the sovereignty and security interests of China," said the Ministry of National Defense of the PRC.
This was reported yesterday by the Chinese newspaper Global Times.
However, Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, essentially rejected this requirement. He promised last Monday that espionage flights would continue, despite Beijing protests.
But only two weeks ago, Mullen visited the Middle Kingdom, held talks there with the head of the PRC General Staff, General Chen Bingde, and called the contacts with Chinese commanders encouraging. However, he now argues in an article in the New York Times that the United States will not shy away from its obligations to its allies and partners.
These words have a very definite implication. General Chen said during meetings with Mullen that raids by American reconnaissance planes and ships, joint maneuvers of the US Navy with the Navy of Japan, Australia and the Philippines hindered trust, not to mention the promise of the administration of US President Barack Obama to sell 6,4 weapons to Taiwan billion dollars
Thus, the claims of both parties to each other remained the same, no one is going to give up. It is possible that Beijing has tightened the tone of its denunciations of American politics after the recent incident in the Taiwan Strait. As reported by Reuters and the Taiwanese press, Chinese Su-27 aircraft attempted to intercept an American U-2 spy plane.
However, the Chinese pilots probably inadvertently crossed the unofficial line in the strait that separates the zones of the PRC and Taiwan. Then Taiwan flew its F-16 fighter jets. When they approached, the "Dry" turned back.
However, such incidents are only the tip of the iceberg of the Sino-American contradictions. The main thing that worries Washington is the rapid modernization of the armed forces of the PRC. According to US officials, China is preparing to challenge the United States in the western Pacific, where the American 7 fleet has dominated for more than half a century. Proof of such ambitions are the upcoming launch of the first Chinese aircraft carrier, testing of a bomber using Stealth technology, modern submarines, and the creation of missiles with a range of 1000 miles that can hit American aircraft carriers.
Americans know little about China’s nuclear forces. As noted in the work of Laura Saalman, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, from the US point of view, strategic stability must be achieved in relations with China. And this goal is unattainable if the same transparency of nuclear potentials is not ensured as between Washington and Moscow.
But Beijing is not satisfied with this approach. Chinese nuclear forces are much lower than American ones. Chinese generals fear that, inclining Beijing to a dialogue on enhancing transparency, the United States does not want to assume any obligations to limit its own ambitions - in particular, in the field of advanced conventional weapons designed for a “fast global strike”.
Therefore, “at the heart of the Chinese concept of nuclear deterrence is not transparency, but secrecy.” At the same time, the Chinese military believe that the US efforts to deploy missile defense and improve conventional weapons undermine the strategic stability, which is called for by the Americans.
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