Defense Secretary Donald on Tuesday cited China's build-up of missiles, as
he justified the US administration's announced intention to deploy a shield
to defend against ballistic missile attacks.
"The truth is that the Chinese have been building more, they are building
more, they are going to build more -- quite apart from any ABM treaty,"
Rumsfeld told CNN late Tuesday.
"They (the Chinese) are not a party to the ABM treaty," in response to a
question relating to China's build-up of intercontinental ballistic
missiles.
Earlier Tuesday, US President George W. Bush signaled the start of an
all-out missile defense race free from the constraints of the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Moscow barring defenses such as the
proposed anti-ballistic missile shield.
Bush also said he would replace the ABM treaty, formulated during the Cold
War, and said he intends to work on a new security framework with Russia and
US allies, who oppose his shield proposals.
Deployment of an anti-ballistic shield would defend the United States
against missile attacks by so-called "rogue states" like Iraq and North
Korea.
"The idea that we should remain vulnerable to a Saddam Hussein or to Iran or
to North Korea or to some other country that might get their hands on these
capabilities ... is so patently unwise and dangerous that the real questions
have to be what are the risks if we don't deploy ballistic missile defense,"
Rumsfeld added in the interview.
The defense minister also, underlined in an interview with Fox television
channel, in addition, the "constraining" nature of the ABM treaty, and said
the United States needed to be able to defend against "small numbers,
limited numbers of very, very powerful weapons."
Before Bush's speech earlier, Rumsfeld had indicated that the administration
was prepared to move swiftly, deploying even unperfected systems to deter
potential adversaries -- a strategy critics call a "scarecrow defense."
"What we're talking about here is a new set of capabilities, to be sure, to
dissuade or deter, as you put it, as well as to defend against a growing
threat in the world," Rumsfeld told reporters.
"They need not be 100-percent perfect in my opinion and they are certainly
unlikely to be in their early stages of evolution," he said.
US President George W. Bush's plan to deploy an anti-missile shield could
spark an arms race and threaten world peace, Chinese media said Wednesday.
The official Xinhua news agency, a mouthpiece for the Chinese government,
strongly criticized the plan, which Bush on Tuesday vowed to implement.
"The United States' missile defense plan has violated the Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) treaty, will destroy the balance of international security
forces and could cause a new arms race," Xinhua said.
The agency quoted analysts as saying a US national missile defensesystem
would threaten world peace.
"Analysts said the US plan to build a missile defense system will not only
spark a new arms race and create a proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, but will also threaten world peace and security in the 21st
century," the news agency said.
Beijing has yet to give its official reaction to Bush's statement that an
NMD shield was necessary to guard the United States against attack by "rogue
states," including North Korea and Iraq.
The US leader also said the 1972 ABM treaty with Russia was obsolete. The
treaty bars defenses such as the proposed NMD.
Beijing fears it is a target of the shield, with its concern heightening
since Bush took office proclaiming China to be a strategic "competitor" of
the US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited China's build-up of missiles as
he justified the US administration's intention to deploy a shield.
"The truth is that the Chinese have been building more, they are building
more, they are going to build more -- quite apart from any ABM treaty,"
Rumsfeld told CNN Tuesday.
"They (the Chinese) are not a party to the ABM treaty," he added.