Mullen: China buildup 'out of step' with territorial defense

[unhappycamper]

http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.106588.1276133223!/image/2075414815.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/2075414815.jpg

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen speaks at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day on May 31, 2010.


Mullen: China buildup 'out of step' with territorial defense
By Kevin Baron
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 9, 2010

WASHINGTON — Adm. Mike Mullen delivered a stinging rebuke to China over the nation’s military buildup, its refusal to engage in open military-to-military relations with the United States, and a “tepid” response to international calls for reprisals against North Korea.

China’s amassing of “expeditionary maritime and air capabilities,” he said, “seems oddly out of step with their stated goal of territorial defense.”

“Every nation has a right to defend itself, and to spend as it sees fit for that purpose,” Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday. “But a gap as wide as what seems to be forming between China’s stated intent and its military programs leaves me more than curious about the end result.

“I have moved from being curious to being genuinely concerned,” he said.

Mullen’s message represents the harshest language directed toward Beijing from the top U.S. military leader amid the current row with China. Accepting an award from the Asia Society, a Washington-based nonprofit, the chairman said U.S. commitments to regional stability from Australia to Japan are “unwavering.”

[Sherman A1]

1. Would this be the

inflatable Chinese Threat Doll which replaces the former inflatable Soviet Threat Doll?

We must be afraid and need more defense spending!!!!!! :spank:

[Xipe Totec]

2. China should move its aircraft carriers away from the US coast.

Oh, wait, they have no carriers off the US coast.

"But a gap as wide as what seems to be forming between China’s stated intent and its military programs leaves me more than curious about the end result"

Pot calls kettle black.