Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REGULAR BRIEFING
BRIEFER: KENNETH BACON, SPOKESMAN
PENTAGON BRIEFING ROOM, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
1:31 P.M. EST TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2000
Q: Before we get to the V-22, I've got two quick ones. Did the Chinese
launch test an intercontinental missile while the chairman was
visiting China recently? And what - go ahead.
MR. BACON: Well, they launched - they tested one on November 4th, and
I believe the chairman was in China at that time, although I haven't
gone back to check his calendar.
Q: Was it about a successful test - where did the test - was it over
the Pacific?
MR. BACON: No, it was over Chinese territory.
Q: How long-range?
MR. BACON: Well, I'm not going to get into great details. The missile
itself, as has been published, has a range of approximately 8,000
kilometers. Obviously they didn't sent it 8,000 kilometers, but they
had a much smaller flight path, shorter flight path for it.
Q: That - wasn't that the third test of that missile?
MR. BACON: I believe it was the third test. I believe the first test
was in August of 1999, and they have had two tests this year. This is
a program that's been ongoing, the DF-31 program, since the
late-1980s, and the test was pretty much as expected in terms of
timing and in terms of results.
Q: Did the U.S. know in advance?
MR. BACON: Sorry?
Q: Did you know in advance?
MR. BACON: Well, I don't think I'll get into details like that.
Q: Did the U.S. know in advance?
MR. BACON: That's not a question I can answer.
Yes.
Q: So far they've just tested it with a single reentry vehicle, right?
Is that still that case?
MR. BACON: I don't think I'll get into details like that.
Q: That would be very significant if it was now MIRVed, correct?
MR. BACON: Well, you can draw your own conclusions.
....
Q: Ken, let me go back to China. The Soviet Union was dismantled. Now
China is getting stronger and stronger militarily. Don't you think
it's a threat to the world peace? And also, anybody in this building
is worried about the future of China maybe getting into the same way
as the Soviet Union against the United States?
MR. BACON: Deng Xiaoping announced four modernizations, one of which
was military; it happened to be the last modernization that China got
to. It choose to allocate resources on agriculture, industry, and
other areas before it got to its military modernization. In the last
several years, it has focused more resources on military
modernization, but it's still increasing its education budget faster
than it's increasing its military budget, to the best of our ability
to monitor that.
We have an extensive engagement program with China, and the engagement
program is designed to work with them in a way that gives us an
ability to look with more transparency at what they're doing, and
gives them an ability to look with more transparency at what we're
doing. We think that engagement program has been helpful in that it's
led to greater involvement by China in a number of arms control
regimes. For instance, they've signed the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty. And they've done other things to limit proliferation.
Obviously, we have to watch carefully any country that is developing
its military forces. But China has been working on modernizing its
long-range missile program, which is very modest, compared to ours;
very modest compared to the Russians; very modest compared to the
French and the British. But they've been working to modernize this
program for some time.
I think that we have published extensive public reports on what
they're doing. You can read about the DF-31 in a number of public
reports that are put out by the Central Intelligence Agency, by the
Defense Department and other agencies.
So we are watching it. I don't think it's fair to say that this
building or this government is worried about what they see in China.
But clearly, we watch any country that is developing its military --
modernizing its military.
Q: Ken, just to follow that. But also China is flying missiles and
other - I mean their military technology to Iran and Pakistan on a
regular basis.
MR. BACON: Well they've just - they made an announcement several
weeks ago that they were going to curb their dealings that lead to
proliferation of weapons; at least some weapons. So, we will watch
them and we hope that what they've said is correct. And we hope that
it's a sign that they realize that proliferation is double-edged; that
it can come back to hurt the sponsor someday as well as perhaps other
countries as well.
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