China Suggests That U.S. Is Stirring Asia-Pacific Tensions

HAIKOU, China — China published a national defense paper on Tuesday suggesting that the United States was creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region by strengthening its military presence and reinforcing its alliances there. The paper, released by the Ministry of Defense, did not declare that the United States was responsible, but the message was clear.

Strongly alluding to the Obama administration’s policy to “pivot” toward a greater focus on the Asia-Pacific region, the paper said, “Some country has strengthened its Asia-Pacific military alliances, expanded its military presence in the region, and frequently makes the situation tenser.” Thus, China has an “arduous task to safeguard its national unification, territorial integrity and development interests.”

Presented at a news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, the paper has mostly a symbolic significance, defense analysts say. It is useful as a way of understanding the way the Communist Party thinks defense issues should be presented to the public, they say. But it is scarcely looked at by China’s military officers.

Over all, the paper suggested that China should be satisfied with its strategic position and offered a congratulatory note, saying that China “has seized and made the most of this important period of strategic opportunities for its development, and its modernization achievements have captured world attention.” In particular, it singled out a better situation with Taiwan, saying, “Cross-straits relations are sustaining a momentum of peaceful development.”

In an indication that the defense paper reflects a softer tone than the more dominant and nationalistic strand in the Chinese military, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily said in a commentary on Tuesday that the West was trying to contain China, and that this must be resisted.

“Currently, the world situation is undergoing its most profound and complex changes since the end of the cold war,” said the commentary, one in a series that seized on a speech on military matters last month by President Xi Jinping. “Hostile Western forces have stepped up their strategy of imposing Westernization on our country and splitting it up, and they are doing their utmost to fence in and contain our country’s development.”

This year’s paper was released after Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Beijing last weekend, his first to China in his new job as America’s top diplomat. That visit was generally friendly but did not result in any changes in China’s policies, most notably its support for North Korea.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, arrives in Beijing early next week on a four-day visit that the Obama administration hopes will yield progress on its goal of better understanding, or at least more communication, between the American and Chinese militaries.

The 40-page document, the first of its kind since 2011, gave some details of the size and makeup of China’s armed forces, in what state media called a demonstration of greater transparency.

The People’s Liberation Army ground force, always known to be by far the biggest service, has 850,000 troops in its mobile operational units, the navy numbers 235,000 service members, and the air force 398,000, the paper said. But the paper appeared to omit some forces from its count, including other ground force units, and the Second Artillery Corps, which controls China’s ballistic missiles.

The Chinese defense white paper for 2006 said that at the end of 2005, the Chinese military had a total of 2.3 million members. It was not explained in the new white paper if the new count of 1.48 million reflected a real reduction in total members.

Dennis J. Blasko, a former United States defense attaché at the American Embassy in Beijing, said the number of navy service members listed in the paper was lower than he and others had estimated. It was generally thought that the navy had 255,000 to 290,000 members, depending on the source, he said. And the number for the air force was higher than previous estimates of 300,000 to 330,000, he said. He also pointed out that the People’s Armed Police was not included in the tallies; those officers belong to a different chain of command.

The paper contained little information of importance to knowledgeable readers, said Mr. Blasko, the author of “The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century.”

In outlining the number of members in each of the military services, the military hierarchy may be seeking to present the People’s Liberation Army as a more open organization, said Scott W. Harold, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation who specializes in China’s military affairs.

“Alternatively, it is possible that the decision to put out these figures is a part of a move by President Xi Jinping, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission, and his allies to stimulate pressures to restructure the P.L.A.’s asset allocation,” Mr. Harold said. The release of the figures may be connected with Mr. Xi’s call for the military to improve its capacity to fight and win wars, he said.

Jane Perlez reported from Haikou, and Chris Buckley from Hong Kong.

NY Times