Military transparency comes with trust

So why has China published a defense white paper biennially since 1998? Such regularity is rare even among major powers. The answer is its growing confidence in its comprehensive national strength, including military strength.

Recent years have seen China's State media much more willing to unlock China's "military secrets", from the test flight of the J-20 and J-31 stealth fighters to successful ground-based mid-course anti-missile tests. The Chinese military has also stepped up its public relations, holding regular media briefings since 2008 and setting up a Ministry of Defense website in English in 2009. Foreign delegations are also invited to observe military exercises. In fact, China's military "warehouse", apart from the Liaoning aircraft carrier and nuclear submarines, has been opened to foreign military visitors.

China is a peace-loving country that adheres to a peaceful development path, and the more confident China is of its military strength and the good intentions of others, the more transparent it will be.

Therefore for the Chinese military to become more transparent, the West needs to convince China that its intentions are not ill and, above all, build greater trust with China.

Zhou Bo is an honorary fellow of the Center on China-American Defense Relations, Academy of Military Science. www.chinausfocus.com

(China Daily 07/23/2013 page8)