Chinese military capabilities continue to grow: Pentagon

China is continuing to develop and field "disruptive military technologies" in nuclear, space and cyber warfare, that is altering regional military balances and may have implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon has said.

The Communist giant is developing new anti-access and anti-area denial and other high-tech weapons, which could be used to enforce its claims over disputed territories, the Pentagon said in a report.

It said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries.

Over the past several years, China has begun a new phase of military development by beginning to articulate roles and missions for the PLA that go beyond its immediate territorial interests, but has left unclear the purposes and objectives of the PLA's evolving doctrine and capabilities, it said.

China's ability to sustain military power at a distance remains limited but its armed forces continue to field disruptive military technologies, including those for anti-access/area-denial and for nuclear, space, and cyber warfare, that are changing regional military balances and have implications beyond Asia-Pacific region, it said.

China has kept up major investments in its armed forces and made advances in hi-tech weaponry that outpace other countries in the region, the Defense Department said in its annual report to Congress on Beijing's military power.

Releasing its annual report on Chinese military power, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters that it provides some new details, "but there are no new major strategic insights revealed or capabilities revealed".

Morrell said US continues to ask for "more dialogue and transparency in our dealings with Chinese government and military, in an effort to reduce suspicions on both sides".

He said the Chinese still look at transparency as "a transaction to be negotiated" but US officials would like them to see transparency as a responsibility that accompanies the accumulation of national power.

Morrell said, without this transparency, conclusions in the report are subject to best guesses by US experts.

According to the report, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) budget has more than doubled since 2000 -- from USD 27.9 billion to USD 60.1 billion. Defense Department Officials, however, believe the Chinese are underreporting the amount they spend on security.

The real budget in 2008 is probably between USD 105 billion and USD 150 billion, they said. 

"China's rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with growing global influence has significant implications for the Asia-Pacific region and the world," it said.

The United States welcomes the rise of a stable, peaceful and prosperous China, and encourages China to participate responsibly in world affairs by taking on a greater share of the burden for the stability, resilience, and growth of the international system.

According to the report, while the US has done much over last 30 years to encourage and facilitate China's national development and its integration into the international system; much uncertainty surrounds China's future course, particularly regarding how its expanding military power might be used.

The pace and scope of China's military transformation have increased in recent years, fueled by acquisition of advanced foreign weapons, continued high rates of investment in its domestic defense and science and technology industries, and far-reaching organisational and doctrinal reforms of the armed forces, the report said.

Even while relations between Taiwan and China improve, the Chinese armed forces modernisation has continued to build up short-range missiles opposite Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. "In the near term, China's armed forces are rapidly developing coercive capabilities for the purpose of deterring Taiwan's pursuit of ... independence," the report said.