CHINA: Defense Test Indicates China’s Displeasure With the U.S.

January 13, 2010

News Analysis
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — China said it had successfully tested the nation’s first land-based missile defense system, announcing the news late Monday in a brief dispatch by Xinhua, the official news agency. “The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country,” the item said.

Even if news accounts on Tuesday did not provide details about the test — and whether it destroyed its intended target — Chinese and Western analysts say there is no mistaking that the timing of the test, coming amid Beijing’s fury over American arms sales to Taiwan, was largely aimed at the White House.

In recent days, state media outlets have been producing a torrent of articles condemning the sale of Patriot air defense equipment to Taiwan. China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province, separated since the civil war of the 1940s, and sees arms sales as interference in an internal matter.

The Defense and Foreign Ministries have released a half-dozen warnings over the weapons deal, saying it would have grave consequences for United States-China relations. The state-run Global Times newspaper urged readers to come up with ways to retaliate against the United States.

Writing in the Study Times newspaper, Maj. Gen. Jun Yinan said that China had the power to strike back. “We must take countermeasures to make the other side pay a corresponding price and suffering corresponding punishment,” wrote General Jun, a professor at China’s National Defense University.

Although most analysts doubt the Chinese will seek to punish the United States in a significant way — retaliatory measures over past arms sales have included the suspension of military talks — the especially vociferous response may herald rockier relations between the countries as they confront differences over monetary policy, trade issues, Iran and North Korea.

“For the Chinese, selling arms to Taiwan feels like a slap in the face,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of United States-Chinese relations at People’s University in Beijing. “I think the government expected something different from Obama, especially so soon after his visit to China.”

The White House said it was simply fulfilling a deal that was negotiated during the Bush administration. It also pointed out that the sale, approved by the Pentagon last week, omits F-16 fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters, a concession to Beijing.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking in California on Monday, said she thought the strain in relations would be brief and mild. “It doesn’t go off the rails when we have differences of opinions,” she said of the relationship with China.

Relations may get bumpier in the coming weeks when President Obama meets with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader whom China accuses of being a separatist, and President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan makes a brief visit to the United States. Overseas visits by Taiwanese officials invariably irk Beijing.

Arthur Ding, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, said China may have thought its growing economic might and the improving cross-strait relations fostered by President Ma during his 20 months in office might have persuaded the United States to put off any weapons deal.

“Perhaps Beijing has unrealistic expectations,” he said. “I think they imagined their influence is greater than it is.”

For all the saber-rattling over the arms sale, some analysts say the official invective and anti-missile demonstration may have been largely aimed at domestic audiences, who increasingly expect their leaders to stand up to the West.

Zhu Feng, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Peking University, described China’s missile defense system as experimental and “not really meaningful” and said the test’s real purpose was an opportunity for the People’s Liberation Army to strut.

Despite China’s newfound confidence, he said the government is increasingly frustrated by its inability to influence the United States on an issue that has bedeviled Beijing for decades.

“China still lacks the leverage to force the White House to stop these sales,” he said. “So they feel like they must make a lot of noise.”

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting, and Li Bibo contributed research.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company