AFP LONDON China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, throwing
diplomatic language to the wind, yesterday told the United States to "shut up
and keep quiet" on the subject of Beijing's growing military spending.
During an interview with BBC Radio, Mr Sha Zukang also said China would "do
the business" and sacrifice its own people's lives if any nation supported a
declaration of independence by Taiwan.
Responding to jitters within the Bush administration about Beijing's
spiralling military budget, Mr Sha said the US itself accounts for half of the
entire world's military spending.
"The China population is six times or five times that of the United States,"
he said. "Why blame China? ... It's better for the US to shut up and keep
quiet. It's much, much better."
His voice rising, Mr Sha continued: "It's the US' sovereign right to do
whatever they deem good for them but don't tell us what is good for China.
Thank you very much!"
Mr Sha was equally explicit on Taiwan declaring independence with US backing
a prospect that the BBC programme called the motivating factor behind Chinese
military spending.
"The moment Taiwan declares independence, supported by whoever, China will
have no choice," he said.
"We will do the business through whatever means available to my government.
Nobody should have any illusions on that. We will do the business at any cost."
He added: "It's not a matter of how big Taiwan is, but for China, one inch of
the territory is more valuable than the life of our people. We will never
concede on that."
China's rising military spending, which has grown by double digits for much of
the last 15 years, has caused concern in the US and among China's neighbours.
In March, the National People's Congress approved a 14.7-per cent increase in
military spending to US$35 billion ($55 billion) this year.
Although this is paltry compared to the US$419 billion US defence budget for
this year, the Pentagon last year estimated that China's defence spending was
two to three times the publicly announced figure.
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http://www.todayonline.com/articles/137087.asp
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