US military officer says China needs to step up

[June 10, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Wednesday he is disappointed by the international community's "tepid" response to North Korea's attack on a South Korean warship and called on China to step up and do more.

In an unusually blunt remarks about a country with close economic ties to the U.S., Mullen said China has the potential to be a productive leader in Asia and to work with the U.S. to promote stability.

"Beijing's answer has been sometimes yes and sometimes no," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Asia Society's annual dinner.

Mullen's comments echoed the tough rhetoric used last week by Defense Secretary Robert Gates when attending an international conference in Singapore. Gates had planned to visit Beijing, but was disinvited.

South Korea has asked the U.N. Security Council to punish North Korea after an international investigation said a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean navy ship in March, killing 46 sailors. North Korea denies responsibility and says any punishment will trigger war.

The U.S. and South Korea have been looking to China to approve some kind of international condemnation or punishment of the North. China is the communist North's closest ally and largest patron, giving it economic and political influence over an otherwise reclusive and antagonistic regime.

But China so far has not assigned blame for the sinking of the warship.

It also has gone out of its way to rebuff the United States. In addition to canceling Gates' planned visit, a Chinese general suggested during the defense conference in Singapore that the U.S. was being hypocritical in criticizing North Korea but not Israel for its deadly commando raid on a Gaza aid flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea.

In his speech, Mullen said China's rejection of Gates was "particularly disappointing, because it removes the opportunity to listen and to learn from and about each other."

He also reiterated long-standing U.S. concerns about a massive military buildup by Beijing's communist government. China has said it wants only to defend itself, but the U.S. says China's interest in naval and air assets that would give the country reach well beyond its borders are more offensive than defensive in nature.

Mullen said he is now "genuinely concerned" about the "gap as wide as what seems to be forming between China's stated intent and its military programs."

[Associated Press; By ANNE FLAHERTY]

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