China leveraging growing power to assert sovereignty

A top Pentagon intelligence official today told US lawmakers that China is leveraging its growing power to assert sovereignty claims over sites in the East and South China Seas and the China-India border.

"China has long identified the protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity as a "core interest" and is leveraging its growing power to assert sovereignty claims over features in the East and South China Seas and the China-India border region," Lt Gen Robert Ashley, Director, Defence Intelligence Agency told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Despite a tribunal's ruling in 2016 that China's "nine-dash line" is not a lawful maritime claim, China is using coercive tactics, such as employing law enforcement vessels and its maritime militia, to enforce maritime claims and advance its interests in ways that are calculated to fall below the threshold of provoking conflict, he alleged.
 

In the East China Sea, China persists in its use of maritime law enforcement ships and aircraft to patrol near the Senkaku Islands and challenge Japans claim.

In the South China Sea, China sustained construction at its Spratly Islands military outposts in 2017 and employed diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade the Philippines to curtail construction activity and coerce Vietnam to abandon drilling operations, he said.

Ashley said looking forward, sustained year-over-year spending increases will enable the Chinese Army to realize its goals for military modernisation and reform.

An increasingly lethal joint force will be capable of holding US and allied forces at risk at greater distances from the Chinese mainland, and the PLA will use new bases and military logistics facilities to extend its operational reach well beyond East Asia.

"A modern, effective nuclear deterrent and substantial investment in advanced cyber, electronic warfare, and space capabilities will bolster Chinas ability to fight and win modern military engagement across multiple military domains," he said.

In early 2017, China announced a 6.5-per cent inflation-adjusted increase in its annual military budget, to USD 154.3 billion, second only to the US and about 1.3 per cent of China's GDP.

"Since China omits several major categories of expenditure from its published military budget, we estimate its actual military-related spending to be over USD 190 billion. This budget extends more than two decades of annual defence spending increases, which we expect China to sustain for the foreseeable future," he said.

According to Ashley, Chinese military forces continue to develop capabilities to dissuade, deter, or defeat potential third-party intervention during a large-scale theatre campaign, such as a Taiwan contingency.

"China's military modernisation plan includes the development of capabilities to conduct long-range attacks against adversary forces that might deploy or operate in the western Pacific Ocean. These capabilities, spanning the air, maritime, space, electromagnetic, and information domains, are most robust within the first island chain, but China is rapidly extending capabilities farther into the Pacific Ocean," he said.

Ashley said the PLA Rocket Force is bolstering its medium-range DF-21 antiship ballistic missile with the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, capable of conducting precision conventional or nuclear strikes against targets as faraway as the island of Guam.

The PLA is also developing and fielding numerous advanced, long range land-attack and antiship cruise missiles, some capable of reaching supersonic speeds, and operated from ground, air, ship, and submarine platforms.

"These capabilities are being augmented with two new air-launched ballistic missiles, one of which may include a nuclear payload," he said.

The PLA Air Force is fielding modern fighters and extending the range and capabilities of its bomber force.

The PLA Navy is developing into a global force, gradually extending its ability to sustain its operational reach beyond East Asia.

Its latest naval platforms enable combat operations beyond the reach of China's land-based defences.

"In particular, China's aircraft carrier and planned follow-on carriers, once operational, will extend air defence umbrellas beyond the range of coastal and shipboard missile systems and help enable task group operations at increasingly greater distances," he said.