Excerpt: Q-A on China Following General Shelton Speech
(Urges engagement to avoid "another Cold War" in Pacific)In response to a question asked following his speech at the Mid-America Committee Leadership Luncheon in Chicago March 26, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Henry H. Shelton said the United States should continue to engage China by trying to explore areas of possible cooperation.
Shelton added, however, that the United States must keep an eye on China's increasing military expenditures, "particularly as we look out at the 2015-2020 timeframe."
Following is an excerpt of the March 26 question-and-answer session:
(begin excerpt)
Q: General, could you please assess the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China and the stability of the region?
Shelton: First of all, I had a chance to visit China in December. We have, in fact, a military-to-military program. We have been engaged in China. You have seen that Qian Qichen visited Washington recently.
I think we all recognize that China is emerging into the international community right now. It would behoove us from a military perspective to engage China, to try to explore the areas where we have cooperation. China needs to understand that the Pacific is in America's important national interests - vital national interests. We have great allies with Japan, South Korea, and many others in that area - friends and allies and partners throughout the Pacific. America is not going to back away from that. We, in fact, will continue to encourage and nurture those partnerships and friendships, but that doesn't mean it has to be another Cold War developing in the Pacific. We think we should continue to engage China to try to keep that from happening.
You saw that they have increased their defense spending expenditures this year. I think that is an area that bears watching. We need to realize that they are rapidly acquiring additional types of not only defensive, but also, offensive types of weapons systems that can be deployed. So I believe that we need to watch that, particularly as we look out at the 2015-2020 timeframe and how that goes.
I mentioned in my remarks the potential for partnerships for those who formed coalitions. That it would not necessarily be in America's interests. So, I for one believe that we need to maintain our armed forces' strength to make sure we guard against strategic surprise, and that we, in fact, always deal from a position of strength.
(end excerpt)
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