Today, China's army is ignoring his advice and has launched a media charm offensive in the hope of calming fears over its growing power.

Western countries led by the United States and some of China's neighbours, including Japan, have regularly urged Beijing to show greater openness in defence matters, particularly in the light of its rapid military expansion.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) -- which started as a communist rebel force, its ranks filled with barefoot peasants -- has invested heavily in weapons and equipment in recent years.

With almost 2.3 million people serving in the PLA's ranks, it is now almost certainly the world's largest employer.

In 2010 Beijing set its defence budget at 532 billion yuan (78 billion dollars), but the figure is widely considered to be an under-estimation.

The Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute said in a report released this week that China had likely spent 100 billion dollars on its military in 2009.

But the lack of clear data has cast doubt on China's aims and ambitions as it expands not only land, sea and air forces but also into space and cyberspace.

It has also shown a desire to develop a rapid reaction force to defend its economic interests and energy supply routes.

In an effort to convince the doubters of its good faith and wholly defensive intentions, the PLA -- more accustomed to unleashing its propaganda machine on the home front -- is now making a point of being open with foreigners.

In April the armed forces invited foreign journalists and military attaches to a presentation on its latest jet fighter, the J-10, at an airbase at Tianjin outside the capital Beijing.

Then in May, the army took French journalists on a press tour featuring talks with defence ministry officials, a presentation on China's anti-piracy mission off Somalia and a tour of select army units -- but no pictures allowed.

British reporters are next in line for an invitation.

Defence ministry spokesman Colonel Huang Xueping told the journalists that China was keen for its armed forces to have greater exchanges with troops from other countries.

"Based on the UN structure, we will participate more in peacekeeping forces and carry out more rescue and relief missions, we will provide more and more opportunities for the outside world to know the Chinese armed forces," he said.

At the sixth armoured division in Beijing, soldiers could be seen simulating tank attacks -- some giving orders, others carrying them out on apparatuses similar to video game consoles.

Journalists were shown a dormitory with carefully arranged bunk beds and metal cupboards containing personal effects, but, apart from dozens of guides, there was not a soldier in sight.

Propaganda posters could be seen in the corridors.

During the tour, commanding officer Colonel Chen Xuewu brushed aside questions about equipment shortages.

"That's speculation, and I never comment on speculation," he said.

Analysts say the new charm offensive still falls far short of the kind of transparency sought by Western countries.

"There is some level of anxiety within the party leadership and foreign ministry that the PLA's building of a globally deployable military is being greeted with suspicion and fear," said Richard Fisher, a Chinese army expert at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a US research institute.

Fisher said China needed to respond to key questions on its plans over the next 10 years for an aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships, C-17 transport planes and nuclear warheads.

"They should be told that the world knows they are building all these things and that these questions will be asked by governments and press until they get answers," Fisher said.

Valerie Niquet, head of the Asia centre at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said: "The effectiveness of Beijing's communication strategy will always be greatly limited by the contradiction between the rhetoric, which is meant to be calming and responsible, and the action, which is much more aggressive."

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News