Any changes of the US defense policy?

The US Department of Defense will submit its "Four-year Appraisal Report on National Defense" to the Congress on Monday. What's new about it? Let's have a look at any changes or shifts of emphasis and identify more clearly the US' policy towards China.

Generally speaking, the report is not beyond the main frame of the new National Security Strategy after the 9.11 incident. But compared with four years ago, the report has adjusted its emphasis on future defense work for the US.

In the new report, the two main themes haven't changed. One is that the US is still carrying out a long battle against terrorism. That is to say that the US' super-arch enemy is still terrorism. The other is that the US still considers China as its potential 'military rival'. Four years ago, US strategist William Cohen has pointed out that strategists have recognized two emphases: one is that the US will face long term threat from terrorism and the other is that the rising China will become US' rival in the region.

But there are two changes in the new report this time. One is that it clearly points out that 'China', as a major and newly-emerged power, has great potential to become US military rival. Four years ago, the US report only said that the US would face a military competitor which had huge amount of resources in East Asia, but didn't mention the name of China. The second change is that the new report has put forward specific measures to strengthen US military capacity in the Pacific region and set up a target of improving its long-range attack capability as soon as possible.

The two changes have shown the US will consolidate its follow-up and study on China's military development and take it as key defense target to design future response strategy. It's also worthwhile to point out that the US wants to strengthen its long-range strike capability mainly due to its consideration that there will be a change in political pattern in future East Asia. Once it become difficult for the US to control East Asian region with the help of its Japanese and South Korean military bases, it has to substantially improve its long-range attack capability. Otherwise, it can't control the region effectively. Meanwhile, long-range attack capability can also increase US' deterrence to terrorists and its so-called 'evil countries'.

In terms of strategic emphasis, the new report is a bit different from Mr. Bush' latest attitude expressed in his State of the Union speech. At that time Mr. Bush emphasized more China's competition with the US in the economic field. Mr. Bush talked more about politics and diplomacy. But the defense report talks about military preparation and forms its China policy from the military preparedness and defense perspective. Judging from the US' two ways of putting its stakes in its defense policy, one can see that the US national defense pays more attention to the unexpected aspect of the situation.

Sino-US relations have experienced some positive changes since last year. The changes took place mainly due to China's fast development. Secondly, this also has something to do with the US change of its national defense strategy after the 9.11. If the US wants to win the war against terrorism, it needs to cooperate with China. The new report reiterated the importance of anti-terrorism. This indicates that the natural conditions for improvement of the Sino-US relation haven't changed.

But the new report also shows that for a long time, the US still takes the method of putting its stakes in the two ways mentioned above. This is because the US still lacks confidence in China's development. In the Sino-US relations, many problems arise due to misunderstanding and mutual suspicion. Judging from the tone of the new report by the US Department of Defense, the mistrust is increasing, not decreasing. This also reflects the complexity of the Sino-US relations.

The article written by Ding Gang and carried on the front page of People's Daily Overseas Edition is translated by People's Daily Online