Chinese Regional Military Intentions: The Pentagon demands answers

摘要

The first clues that the Pentagon was to harden its stance on China surfaced very publicly on 4 June 2005 in Singapore, where US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spe led out his concerns before an assembled audience of foreign ministers. Whilst lauding the peaceful rise of Asian nations, Rumsfeld openly expressed his fear that a non-democratic major power in Asia was beginning to extend its military reach beyond hitherto accepted parameters. Rumsfeld posed three questions, demanding Chinese justification for its growing Defence investment, continuing large expanding arms purchases and robust military deployments. In addition, Rumsfeld questioned the validity of such large military expenditure by a regime lacking open and representative government.