China has kept promoting its military transparency, along with its rapid economic development, rising international status and wider opening to the outside world, said a military academician in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Thursday.
"The Chinese government has attached great importance to the issue of military transparency and made clear its own responsibilities," said Wang Xinjun, a researcher with the Theoretical and Strategic Studies Institute under China's Academy of Military Science.
The Chinese government understands other countries' concern about its military development. It has published many white papers on defense, arms control and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and space policy, the expert noted.
By doing so, he said, China has kept the international community well informed of the latest developments of China's defense policy, military spending, weapons and equipment.
This year, China has participated in the United Nations' Military Budget Transparency Mechanism and returned to the Conventional Weapons Registration System, two major mechanism of the UN concerning military transparency, according to the expert.
The UN Military Budget Transparency Mechanism came into being on December 12, 1980, when the UN General Assembly approved the resolution 35/142 entitled "reduction of Military Budgets", which introduced the UN system for standardized reporting of military expenditures. Currently, over 110 nations have joined the system.
To further promote its military transparency, China has taken a series of steps like increasing high-level military dialogs, holding joint military exercises and exchanging of visits by naval fleets with foreign countries, opening up barracks to foreign military attaches, sending observers to drills by foreign armies, and holding briefings on China's military development.
In 2005, China, for the first time, opened up its strategic missile troops to foreign military leaders, and one year later, China made public the strategic thinkings of its army, navy, air force and strategic missile troops in the 2006 White Paper on Defense, for the first time, Wang said.
According to Teng Jianqun, deputy secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA), China joined the Conventional Weapons Registration System and suspended from it in 1998.
Regarding the weapons export, Teng said, China has always held a responsible stance for her own and regional security, seriously implemented international practices concerned, and imposed strict control on the import and export of weapons and military equipment.
In the 1980s, China began participating in international convention and mechanism of arms control and disarmament, in an effort to promote her military transparency. In recent years, the Chinese government has joined almost all mechanisms concerning arms control and non-proliferation, Teng said.
He said that what the Chinese government has done is a concrete step to open up the country's military to the outside world, which has helped increased China's military contacts with other countries and deepened mutual trust and cooperation in the military field between China and neighboring countries.
(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2007)
