China Is Concealing Its Spending On Arms Programs, Pentagon Says

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said yesterday that China is concealing its spending on weapons programs, including technology to disrupt America's efforts inspace.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, the deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia said, "What we see is a deliberate effort on the part of China's leaders to mask the nature of Chinese military capabilities."

As a result, Richard Lawless said, "the outside world has limited knowledge of the motivations, decision-making and key capabilities of China's military or the direction of its modernization."

"We are seeing China emerge as a growing international space power" while rapidly developing its armed forces to compel Taiwan to bend to its demands, he said.

While China's long-range power remains limited, Mr. Lawless said China was modernizing its nuclear force to be capable of strategic strikes beyond the Asia-Pacific region.