Pentagon says China is increasingly influenced by oil

China’s ongoing military buildup remains focused on preventing Taiwan’s independence but is expanding to include other regional military goals, including securing the flow of oil from overseas, according to an annual Pentagon study issued Friday.

The 42-page report, required by Congress, found that Beijing’s investment in offensive military capabilities along the Taiwan Strait has continued unabated. China has deployed more than 100 additional short-range missiles in the region over the last year, to bring its total aimed at Taiwan to about 900. China also has 400,000 of its 1.4 million soldiers based in the three military regions opposite Taiwan, the study said.

But Beijing’s investment in military modernization -- which may have reached $125 billion last year, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, or nearly triple the official $45 billion declared by Beijing -- has produced military systems that enable China to project force well beyond its shores.

Of particular concern, the report said, was the increasing ability of the People’s Liberation Army to strike at an adversary’s forces in the Pacific Ocean, a clear reference to U.S. bases and naval forces in Asia that would rush to Taiwan if it were invaded by China.

“The PLA appears engaged in a sustained effort to develop the capability to interdict, at long ranges, aircraft carrier and expeditionary strike groups that might deploy into the western Pacific,” the report stated.

In addition, the report said China was attempting to move its long-range nuclear forces out of silos, basing them on more elusive submarines and ground-based mobile launchers. One new intercontinental nuclear missile, the DF-31, which can be moved overland to avoid enemy attacks, was put into initial operation last year, the report said.

The report reiterated the Pentagon’s concern over Beijing’s successful antisatellite missile test in January, saying it appeared to be part of a broad strategy aimed at disabling enemy satellites. The report said China was also developing satellite jammers as well as “directed energy” weapons, like lasers, that could disable U.S. satellites.

The Pentagon restated its concern that China’s continued buildup was occurring even as it refused to explain why it was investing heavily in new weapons systems, a “lack of transparency” that was prompting the U.S. to improve its own air and naval forces as a hedge against unknown Chinese designs.

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had accused China in 2005 of being increasingly provocative by hiding the reasons behind its buildup. But one Defense official who worked on this report said that Beijing had become more open about its intentions. Last year, Beijing published a white paper generally describing its defense policies and the purpose of its military modernization, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing U.S. assessments.

Rumsfeld leveled his charge at an annual gathering of Asian defense ministers in Singapore, a conference Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will attend next week. Gates is expected to exhibit less brinksmanship. On Thursday, Gates said he approved of the new China report because it was suitably low-key.

“I’m happy to report that I don’t think it does any arm-waving,” Gates said. “I don’t think it does any exaggeration of the threat.”

The higher estimates of Chinese spending would make its annual defense spending the world’s second-highest, but still only a fraction of the U.S. program. Including $170 billion in war spending, the U.S. defense budget this year will top $606 billion.

The report takes notice of China’s increased need for oil from the Mideast and Africa, and notes that growing energy consumption is beginning to shape the country’s military and strategic thinking.

The report found that Beijing currently was unable to protect the sources of its oil supplies and their sea routes. The report said concerns over the vulnerability of those waterways had prompted Beijing to increase its naval capabilities.

The Defense official said that China’s apparent desire to acquire an aircraft carrier may be motivated by its concerns over maintaining the flow of oil.

“China’s concerns over the vulnerability of its energy and other resource supplies and the sea lanes used to transport those is increasing, and that increased concern over that vulnerability may end up shaping how they view their force planning for the future,” the official said.

peter.spiegel@latimes.com