China rebuffs Germany's call for U.S. missile deal with Russia

[dukkha]

MUNICH (Reuters) - China rejected on Saturday German Chancellor Angela Merkel's appeal to join a Cold War-era arms control treaty that the United States accuses Russia of breaching, saying it would place unfair limits on the Chinese military.

Fearing a nuclear arms race between China, Russia and the United States after the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the United States is withdrawing from, Merkel made her call for a global treaty.

But China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi, who spoke on a panel in Munich, said that Chinese missiles were defensive.

"China develops its capabilities strictly according to its defensive needs and doesn't pose a threat to anybody else. So we are opposed to the multilateralization of the INF," he said

China's stated ambition is to modernize its People's Liberation Army by 2035, improve its air force and push into new technologies including very high speed cruise missiles and artificial intelligence.

Its defense budget grew nearly six percent between 2017 and 2018, according to the London-based International Institute for Security Studies (IISS).

Retired Chinese General Yao Yunzhu told delegates a new arms control agreement would only work if it included sea- and air-launched missiles, as well as land, because most of China's military technology was ground-based and the country would not want to put itself at a disadvantage.

Cheaper to build, more mobile and easier to hide, ground-based rocket launchers are an attractive option to China as it develops its armed forces, experts say, whereas the United States operates more costly sea-based systems to comply with the INF.

"China is traditionally a land power and the Chinese military is a ground force," Yao said.

"If China is to enter into these kinds of negotiations, I think it ought to be more comprehensive to include not only land-based but also air and sea-based strike capabilities ... and that would be hugely complicated," she said.

[dukkha]

China rejected on Saturday German Chancellor Angela Merkel's appeal to join a Cold War-era arms control treaty that the United States accuses Russia of breaching, saying it would place unfair limits on the Chinese military.

largest army with cruise nukes and known hegemonic goals make China the new threat to the existing world order.

It's not Russia -it's China.. But China and Russia are becoming new military long term partners as well,
Russia gets battlefield nukes thru China? - not yet China's are land INF and Russia & China drills were Vostok 2018