China unveils 15-year plan for high-tech weapons; slams US report

May 25, 2006, 16:54 GMT

Beijing - China on Thursday unveiled a plan to 'enhance its capability to develop and rapidly supply new-generation weaponry' over the next 15 years, state media said.

The plan 'stresses that the country will develop high and new technology weaponry to reinforce a mechanized and information-based army,' the official Xinhua news agency said.

The 15-year programme will include development of 'new and high technologies for the space industry, aviation, ship and marine engineering, nuclear energy and fuel, and information technology for both military and civilian purposes,' the agency said.

'The outline development programme of science and technology for national defence (2006-2020)' was agreed by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence in the eastern port of Qingdao on Thursday, it said.

China on Thursday also criticized as reflecting a 'Cold War mentality' a US Department of Defence report that questioned the purpose of China's military buildup.

The Pentagon report on Tuesday said China's leaders 'have yet to adequately explain the purposes or desired end-states of their military expansion.'

'The outside world has little knowledge of Chinese motivations and decision making or of key capabilities' that have resulted in the military buildup, the report added.

The Pentagon estimates that China's defence spending is two or three times higher than the officially disclosed amount of about 35 billion dollars in 2006. China has regularly raised its annual military budget by more than 10 per cent since the early 1990s.

The Pentagon said that the weapons acquisitions and the modernization of the Chinese military are geared, in the short-term, toward preparing for a possible confrontation in the Taiwan Strait.

However, the report cautioned that the Chinese military buildup 'could apply to other regional contingencies, such as conflicts over resources or territory.'

The US, including Department of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have criticized China's lack of transparency with regard to its military.