Wed, Mar 08, 2006 page4

• Japan tells China to help ease military concerns

  TOO OPAQUE Japan told its western neighbor it needed to move toward nuclear disarmament as the two countries ended talks on the East China Sea

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  Japan urged Beijing yesterday to take steps towards nuclear disarmament, to strictly control exports of missile technologies and to disclose military data to allay its neighbors' fears.

  Japan's Foreign Ministry issued the diplomatic requests at a time when ties between the two Asian powers have been strained by a range of simmering disputes, many stemming from Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

  In a report on disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, the ministry said information on China's military remained "opaque."

  "We believe that it is important for China to improve transparency regarding its military in order to clear fears held by its neighboring countries," the report said.

  China, whose 2.3-million-strong People's Liberation Army is the world's largest standing military, has been steadily moving to modernize its nuclear arms and missile capabilities as well as its naval and air forces, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

  China said on Saturday that its official defense budget would rise to 283.8 billion yuan (US$35 billion) this year, up 14.7 percent from last year. The country's military spending has risen by double-digit percentages for the last few years.

  US and Japanese defense officials and many defense analysts have said that Beijing in fact spends much more on military equipment and forces than the official budget shows.

  As a result, Japan has grown increasingly outspoken and nervous about China's military buildup and has repeatedly called on Beijing to disclose information on its military.

  In December, Japanese For-eign Minister Taro Aso caused a diplomatic flap when he said China's military buildup was a threat given its lack of transparency, triggering an angry retort from Beijing and straining already chilly bilateral ties.

  nuclear risks

  Yesterday's report said that China, which has intercontinental ballistic missiles that put the west coast of the US within range, should follow the other four nuclear powers -- the US, Russia, Britain and France -- and declare a moratorium on production of fissionable material.

  "Although China has shown its intention to push ahead with nuclear disarmament, no progress is believed to have been made in specific nuclear arms reduction steps in the past 20 years," it said.

  China has taken legal steps to curb exports of sensitive materials and technologies since 2002, but it should do more to completely halt shipments abroad of materials that could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, it said.

  "We hope China will enforce strict export controls," the report said.

  The US said in December that it had imposed sanctions on six Chinese state-run firms for selling missiles or chemical weapons supplies to Iran.

  territorial dispute

  Meanwhile, China and Japan wrapped up two-day negotiations on disputed gas deposits in the East China Sea and agreed to meet again in an ongoing effort to resolve the territorial disagreement, the Chinese government said.

  "The two sides exchanged in-depth views ... and agreed to hold a next round of consultation as soon as possible," the official Xinhua News Agency said.

  It did not say when or where the talks would take place.

  Japanese officials were hoping for a response from China to Tokyo's proposal for joint development of the deposits. The Xinhua report did not give details on what China's position was but said discussions were "pragmatic and constructive."

  Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asia-Oceania Bureau, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Zhengyao (胡正躍), met yesterday morning after several hours of talks on Monday, an official with the Japanese embassy in Beijing said yesterday. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with embassy policy.
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