US intelligence: China to be a superpower
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-01 08:38

The US Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, warned that China'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 China 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, China 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 China'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, China'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 China'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."