By JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTONâ€"The Pentagon hailed new cooperation with Beijing while reiterating concerns about Chinese military growth it says is aimed at keeping the U.S. out of the Western Pacific, in an annual report on China's military modernization.
China said this year that it would spend $106 billion on its military budget, an 11.2% increase. That public disclosure probably undercounts its total expenditures, said Dave Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. U.S. officials say China's military spending is almost double the public budget. The U.S. defense budget, by comparison, is $646 billion this year.
The increase in China has enabled the development of new weapons and capabilities. U.S. officials say they believe China's new generation stealth fighter, the J-20, will be operational as early as 2018.
The U.S. also expects China's first aircraft carrier will be available for use by navy helicopters by the end of the year, but that it will be several more years before Beijing has a full air wing deployed on the carrier.
Congress mandates the annual report on China's military. The Pentagon typically looks at the development of new weapons technologies, cyberactivities and China's posture to its neighbors and Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Saturday that "China's justified and normal military development" had been unjustly criticized in the report. He said the country's military policy is defensive, adding that China is committed to the maintenance and promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in the Asian-Pacific region and the world as a whole.
"So long as a country is not hostile to China, it will show no doubt or worry over such development," Mr. Hong added.
In the past, Chinese officials have criticized the report for amplifying the idea that China presents a threat to the U.S. or its allies. This year, the Pentagon this year has taken pains to present a more balanced picture of China's military by highlighting improved U.S. relations with the People's Liberation Army, said Chris Johnson, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"This year's report comes across as very nuanced," Mr. Johnson said. "That is fair and accurate based on what the PLA did in the last year."
Over the past year, the U.S. has made a push to expand military-to-military talks on counterpiracy operations and humanitarian relief. During a recent visit to the U.S., Gen. Liang Guanglie, China's minister of national defense, toured a U.S. destroyer in San Diego that had recently returned from counterpiracy operations.China has begun taking a more direct interest and role in such operations, as well as in international peacekeeping missions, the report notes.
China's military has until recently been unable to deploy outside its region. But a Chinese guided-missile frigate and military transport aircraft helped evacuate Chinese nationals from Libya as the conflict there intensified last year.
China's counterpiracy operations allow its military to learn to operate at greater ranges, Mr. Johnson noted. "There are multiple motivations for what they are doing," he said. "It is not all to contribute to world stability."
The report said Beijing has taken steps to ease relations with neighbors and "dampen suspicions" in other countries that, like China, claim territory in the South China Sea. In 2010, according to the report, China's assertive stance in the South China Sea "increased regional tensions."
China has taken steps to hold high-level discussions with Japan and other regional powers over territorial claims and other issues, the report said. But it added that China continues to press claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere, sometimes backed by implied threats of force.
The overall goal of China's military modernization is to be able to fight and win short-duration, high-intensity wars, Mr. Helvey said. Preparation for a potential war over Taiwan remains the military priority of China, he said. The report also said China is sustaining its investment in cyberwarfare.
U.S. officials have long complained that many cyberattacks aimed at stealing U.S. defense secrets originate from China.
"China's persistent cyber intrusions indicate the likelihood that Beijing is using cybernetwork operations as a tool to collect strategic intelligence," the report said.
Mr. Helvey said the U.S. has repeatedly raised with China the issue of Chinese cyberactivity.
"We note that China's investing in not only capabilities to better defend their networks but also they're looking at ways to use cyber for offensive operations," Mr. Helvey said.
Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared May 19, 2012, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: U.S. Tempers View of Beijing's Military.
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