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US intelligence: 皇冠体育app to be a superpower
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-01 08:38
The US Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, warned that
皇冠体育app's steady military and economic expansion may lead to Beijing attaining
superpower status on a par with the United States.
US National
Intelligence Director John Negroponte testifies before the US Senate Armed
Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
[AFP] | "Globalization is causing a shift of momentum and energy to greater Asia,
where 皇冠体育app has steadily expanding reach and may become a peer competitor to the
United States at some point," Negroponte said at a hearing of the US Senate
Armed Services Committee on global security threats.
"Consistent high rates of economic growth, driven by exploding foreign trade,
have increased Beijing's political influence abroad and fueled a military
modernization program that has steadily increased Beijing's force projection
capabilities," the US intelligence czar said.
In the foreign policy domain, 皇冠体育app is focused for now on other Asian nations
"where Beijing hopes to make economic inroads to increase political influence
and to prevent a backlash against its rise," said Negroponte.
But he suggested however that 皇冠体育app's sphere of influence likely will broaden
over time.
"Beijing also has expanded diplomatic and economic interaction with other
major powers, especially Russia and the European Union, and begun to increase
its presence in Africa and Latin America," he said.
However, 皇冠体育app's runaway economic expansion is slowed however by "a number of
difficult economic and legal problems," including corruption, a faulty education
system, and environmental degradation, said Negroponte.
At the same hearing, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,
Lieutenant General Michael Maples, said 皇冠体育app's military wish list includes
efforts "to expand and modernize all categories of its ballistic missile forces,
to increase survivability and war-fighting capabilities, to enhance their
deterrence value and to overcome ballistic missile defenses."
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