press reports indicate that google is contemplating pulling out of china which we may discuss a bit in our hearing stressed for some time the critical significance of developments in china to our national china security relationship i was encouraged by the joint statement that resulted from the president's recent visit to china i welcome the ministrations ever to increase u s china relations and cooperation in areas of common interest ranging from counterterrorism and nonproliferation to energy security we must work together with china for the settlement of conflicts and reduction of the tensions that contribute to global and regional instability including of the korean peninsula the iranian nuclear issue and the situation in south asia particularly welcome the administration's support for increasing military to military contacts of longview such contacts as the central builds trust to promote understanding it prevents conflicts and fosters cooperation and given my own visits to china in recent years i know how important these relationships are looking back at us china security cooperation in the previous administration there are some positive steps but there's still much progress to be achieved in the new ministration will continue to face plenty of challenges and  remain concerned by the trends in ambiguity as regarding china's military modernization including china's missile build up across from taiwan and a steady increase of china's power projects and capabilities moreover china's military budget continues that trend of double digit increases the time when china provides more and more of the loans that support him american economy china's transparency on defense issues is still limited questions remain regarding china's strategic intentions this was highlighted just days ago following china's can certainly missile intercept event the same time the reduction of tensions across the taiwan strait is a positive development and hope to see further progress in that area including meaningful action by china to reduce its military presence directly opposite taiwan also encouraged by china's recent involvement in a counter p operations in the gulf of aden this demonstrates responsible use of chinese military power in line with the general national responsibility which i hope we can see more i continue to believe china is not necessarily destined to be a threat to our country but there are trends in ambiguities that do concern us that continue to believe that the united states must demonstrate our own interests in the asia pacific region including our ability to project power effectively there the same time we must also acknowledge china's limitations and recognize that china's choices may well be shaped by our own actions so i look forward to hearing from eyewitnesses about the actions that the department of defense and the department state are undertaking and i hope they will help us better understand recent security developments involving that nation also look forward to receiving your two thousand and ten department of defense and your report on this subject must thank you for holding today's hearing on recent security developments involving the people's republic of china today is our first opportunity to examine the administration's policy toward china and how such a policy is aligned with our overall approach to the region this hearing also gives us a forum to better understand china's military buildup and activities where they are expanding their areas of implements around the globe all of which have serious implications for the strategic posture of the united states but also like to welcome our witnesses that chairman recognize and thank you all for being here today i look forward to your testimony in our discussion as i review our policy toward china it's my understanding that president obama's team may follow an approach of strategic assurance as put forward by deputy secretary of state james steinberg this strategy is based on the belief that china cannot be contained and therefore we america and the international community must accept its rise to power in return we seek china's reassurance that its stature will not come at the expense or security of other nations for example strategic assurance may be demonstrated in part by china's cooperation with the united states and other nations on matters of shared interests in particular within the last year we work together in our handling of the global financial crisis countering piracy off the east coast of africa and isolating north korea for its persistent and a glass aggressive nuclear and missile tests while these are positive steps in our relationship we cannot ignore the reality that china still polish short in the column of reassurance actions speak louder than words here but a few of the examples first on monday china demonstrated its resolve to expand its strategic capabilities with the missile defense test as of yesterday we heard from the pentagon that this test was conducted without advance notification to the united states what are china's intentions for employing a missile interceptor system once again we're left in the dark to questions china china's commitment to transparency and cooperation more concerning this test comes at a time of tension over arms sales to taiwan is intended as an aggressive signal second according to the latest us china economic and security commission report quote there's been a marked increase in cyber intrusions originating in china and targeting u s government and defense related computer systems and activity that could potentially disrupt u s commercial and banking systems as well as compromise sensitive defense and military data and the  remarked about google and the problem that they're having and where we're moving in that direction third in march two thousand and nine a chinese naval vessel behaved in an aggressive manner towards the us and has impeccable despite china's assertion of its rights within its maritime exclusive economic zone this incident illustrates the swelling this to violate international law and reflects increasing risks of china's expanding military operations in areas where u s forces routinely operate independently these examples are a cause of concern but more so when seen under an umbrella marked uncertainty surrounding china's future course in terms of its military and security ambitions i'd like to now turn to the neighborhood in which china resides this brings me to the president's recent trip to asia while some see the u s china joint statement as a significant accomplishment from my view we're merely left with alondra list of issues need to be worked out furthermore i'm deeply concerned with the message we sent to our partners in the region from australia to india the chip the trip raises questions about who has the upper hand in the us china relationship at a time when we should be focused on a reaffirming our commitment to the region we left many doubting the depth and breadth of american power and influence for example in the two thousand and nine defense white paper the government of australia states that we also need to consider the circumstances of a more dramatic and in defense planning terms sudden the terrier ration in our strategic outlook while currently unlikely a transformation a major power relations in the us pacific region would have a profound effect on our strategic circumstances of particular concern would be any didn't diminish and of the willingness or capacity of the united states to act as a stabilizing force i hope each of you will give concrete examples of what we're doing to alleviate these doubts finally in just a few weeks a department of defense will submit its two thousand and ten quadrennial defense review to congress shortly afterwards will receive the nuclear post review in the two thousand and six q t r the pentagon noted that china was at a strategic crossroads and the have the greatest potential to compete militarily with the united states in its two thousand and nine annual report to congress on china's military power the department maintained that the pace and scope of china's military transformation continue to increase fueled by the acquisition of advanced foreign weapons also similar to years past noted that china continues to develop and field disruptive technologies getting those for and the access area denial as well as for nuclear cyber space warfare when we receive the i'll be looking closely at any changes to the department's assessment of china my fear is that we will downgrade the china threat in an attempt to justify last year's and future cuts to key defense programs if the conclusion is the same as it was in two thousand and six then i expect the president's budget to invest in the necessary capabilities to execute our contingency plans in asia this is the type of strategic reassurance our allies need and is the key to stability in asia with respect to the n p r we must be cognizant that any additional reductions in our strategic capabilities will only invite china to seek strategic parity with the united states in closing today well hear about the need for candid dialogue and improved engagement with china as you know we made changes to the pentagon's annual report on china's military power in this year's defense bill to focus on those areas while i believe the coming to the table is vital to avoiding misunderstanding and miscalculation we must be mindful that it takes two to make a relationship work and that our private priority focus must always be on protecting america's national security interests this is truly a timely hearing and we appreciate your appearance here this morning thank you mr chairman i thank the gentleman a word to the members we will be back in our that thank you chairman skelton representative mckeon and members of this committee chairman thank you very much for introducing my wife donna who joins me today she's been a military spouse for thirty six years in addition to being a mom and a grandmother and she's now a very much a joint spouse at pacific command with oversight of the needs of army navy air force marine corps and coast families as well as families of our our civilian workers within pay com i'm pleased to have her here as well thank you sir i've now been in command of the united states pacific command for about three months and although i may be new to pay com of commanded extensively in the asia pacific region consequently during my thirty six years of service i've developed a great respect for this part of the world in that time i've come to believe that now more than ever it's vital to our nation's security interests and economic prosperity in previous tours as now the emergence of china and its military has been a routine topic of discussion in my interactions with regional leaders of concern to most reconciling china's declared desire for a peaceful and stable environment for economic development with a new military capability and capacity that appear designed to challenge international freedoms of action and potentially enforce influence over regional nations reconciliation of these two divergent positions can only occur through continuous frank conversations and mutual actions within a strong and mature military to military relationship a relationship that does not yet exist between the united states military and the p l a and intel it does and it's determined that china's intent is indeed benign it's critical that we maintain the readiness of our forward deployed forces continually reinforce our commitment to our allies and partners in the region and meet each challenge by the people's republic of china in a professional manner that is consistent with international law it's clearly in both nation's interest and the asia pacific region as interests to manage these complexities and to develop a relationship with china that is constructive in every way that u s pacific command our goal is to support this relationship by identifying opportunities that allow us to work more closely with china while also encouraging her to reconcile strategic intent with increasingly sophisticated combat capability congress can assist by maintaining a focus not only on china but on the growing importance of the asia pacific region to our nation and to our global partners our messages during engagements with chinese leadership both in beijing and during their visits to washington d c must be consistent resolut and invoke the nation's principles and values i offer my staff support direct support to you during your travels to the region and invite you to stop in honolulu and visit us pacific command on your way to or from this area of responsibility finally i would like to thank this committee for the strong support you provide to the min and women of the our united states military despite being involved in two wars our retention and recruiting rates remain very strong which is a direct reflection of the quality of life initiatives supported by you and by the american people on behalf of more than three hundred thousand men and women of u s pacific command please accept my sincere appreciation for the work that you do for us and for this great nation thank you and i look forward to answering your question thank you admiral secretary gr mr chairman members of the committee thank you very much for this opportunity to appear today to discuss recent military and security developments in the people's republic of china i'm pleased to be joined by old friends and colleagues admiral willard and mr david  china's rapid rise as a regional political and economic power with growing global influence has significant implications for the asia pacific region the united states and the world these developments occur in a dynamic environment with little historical precedent as secretary gates said during the past three decades an enormous swath of asia has changed almost beyond recognition hundreds of millions of a merge from poverty to higher living standards as a result of cooperation openness and mutual security new and reemerging centers of power alike are realizing extraordinary growth and development from india indonesia china to russia and australia to japan millions  moved from poverty to prosperity china's rapid development helped drive this extraordinary and dynamic growth in turn china again greatly the united states welcomes a strong prosperous and successful china as president obama stated the relationship between the united states and china will shape the twenty first century which makes it as important as any bilateral relationship in the world but the effects of climate change and disasters both manmade and natural are increasingly interconnected world and common demands for resources require cooperation and integrated solutions since the committee's last hearing on this topic we have seen several significant developments positive troubling many are documented in the secretary of defense's annual report on military power of the people's republic of china on one hand we have several positive examples of china's contribution to international peace and stability we are encouraged by china's support for u n security council resolution eight hundred seventy four and its support the denuclearization of the korean peninsula china's also developing emergency military capabilities that are allowing it to contribute cooperatively in the delivery of public goods from peacekeeping and to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief we appreciate the positive experience of our two navies working in concert with the international community to combat piracy in the gulf of aden and we are looking forward to building on the but we have concerns about the pace and lack of transparency in china's military modernisation the people's liberation army is changing from a mass army designed for projected wars of attrition on its own territory to one developer winning short duration high intensity conflict against adversaries weapons and material to support from both foreign and sources an increasingly capable industrial and technical base organizational and doctrinal changes are also evident as  disruptive technologies designed for anti access and aerial denial clear space in cyberspace arena modernization and expansion of military capabilities across the taiwan strait continues with the addition of more missiles and hand air surface and undersea capabilities over the past several years china developing arctic developed and articulated roles and missions for the way that go beyond immediate territorial interests we will continue  military engagement with the p r c to demonstrate u s commitment to the asia pacific region and act as a partner in addressing common security challenges we will maintain and enhance our presence and alliances in asia and clearly demonstrate u s resolve our interests lie as they have for the decades of ages rise in constructive engagement with china combined with a strong network of alliances and partnerships throughout the region thank you before you today my colleagues from the department of defense have already addressed our military to military relations with china so my remarks will focus on the president's november trip to asia as well as our broader security goals regarding china and the region since coming to office president obama has repeatedly stated that the united states welcomes the emergence of china and that in an interconnected world power does not need to be a zero sum game we welcome an international role for china in which its growing economy is joined by growing responsibility and i would reiterate our desire that as the chinese economy grows they become a responsible member of the international community president obama's trip to asia in november two thousand and nine with stops in japan port china and south korea was intended to demonstrate the u s commitment to the region build trust articulate our values on issues such as human rights and strengthen and expand our cooperation with china the trip was productive in this regard during his first ever visit to china the president deepened his acquaintance with his chinese counterparts and demonstrated to them the importance we place on cooperating on such issues as iran north korea and afghanistan the president set the stage for further cooperation with china in preparation for the copenhagen comp conference on climate change he discussed exchange rates and trade clean energy military to military exchanges human rights and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons we outlined the key accomplishments of the visit in a joint statement issued by president obama and president hu didn't on november seventeenth it has been said before that in order to get china right you have to get the region right the united states is a vital contributor to asian security and economic prosperity our active presence in asia helps promote regional security and stability we intend to deepen our engagement and strengthen our leadership in the region by strengthening our commitments to allies and partners and enhancing our involvement in regional institutions and the secretary addressed these issues as well as our presence in the region in an important speech in honolulu yesterday the president's trip to china demonstrate and the region demonstrated the importance we place on east asia which remains vital to us security and prosperity in the november a joint statement the chinese recognize the positive role the united states plays in the stage by stating that china welcomes the united states as an asia pacific nation that contributes to peace stability and prosperity in the region the trip was also a continuation of our efforts to build a positive cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the united states  china as president obama has said the ability of the united states and china to partner with each other is a prerequisite for progress on some of the most important issues of our times those issues include several important security challenges issues such as north korea and iran cannot be successfully addressed without intensive and sustained involvement by china to date we've been courage by china's willingness to cooperate with these areas although we have a lot of work to be done although there is a lot of work to be done we obviously do not see eye to eye with the chinese on every issue for example on taiwan the united states remains committed to our one china policy based on the three joint communiqu and the taiwan relations act we believe that this policy has contributed greatly to the peace and stability of the past several decades and we remain committed to that framework we welcome the improvement in cross straight relations over the past year at the same time we have voiced our concerns about china's rapid military modernization program as it relates to taiwan china's continued military buildup across the taiwan strait despite improvements in cross trade relations raises many questions about beijing's commitment to a peaceful solution to the cross straits issue similarly the united states and china have differences on the issue of human rights the promotion of human rights remains an essential element of american foreign policy as the president has said it is a part of who we are as a people president obama has stated that the rise of a strong prosperous china can be a source of strength for the community of nations this summer will hold another meeting of the u s china strategic and economic dialogue that we initiated last july we will use this and other forums to continue building our relationship with china and to seek pragmatic cooperation on issues of mutual concern at the same time will remain engaged and active throughout the region supporting our allies and expanding our leadership in this vitally important part of the world thank you for the opportunity to make these remarks sir and mr chairman if you don't mind i'd like to say a little something on the subject of google as you all may know google made a statement yesterday about a cyber attack on its facilities allegedly originating from china and secretary clinton made a strong statement on this yesterday which i'd like to repeat for a while she said we have been briefed by google on these allegations which raise very serious concerns and questions we look to the chinese government for an explanation the ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy the secretary also said that she will be giving an address next week on the central internet freedom in the twenty first century and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear the secretary will deliver a speech on internet freedom next thursday that was scheduled before google announcement she has been very engaged on the issue of internet freedom and anticipated the need to stake out a clear policy ground on this subject the secretary had dinner with ten executives of leading high tech companies last week and discussed internet freedom during that dinner she has been actively listening and learning from those assembled executives include including google c e o schmidt she takes this issue very very seriously and we have been in touch with google  subsequent to their contact with secretary clinton and we have been in contact with all of the agencies dealing with cyber security on this issue and we will be happy to remain in touch with you on this subject th called i think the major security challenge is the level of uncertainty that exists in attempting to reconcile the public statements that china makes regarding its long term intent which is generally that it characterizes its military capabilities and capacities as defensive only and seeks a peaceful one harmonious environment in which to grow i prosper with the military capability that is not necessarily consistent with that characterization of the future in that the power projection capabilities capabilities capacities both in asymmetric areas and conventional areas tend to exceed that description that ambiguity that currently exists and our attempts to reconcile that are the security issue that we we hope to tackle in our military to military dialogue with the with our p r c counterparts economic recovery and how we coordinate with the chinese on this subject is the number one issue on our agenda with the chinese we want the chinese to rebalance their economy as we rebalance ours  china will need the chinese people will need to save less and soon more we would like to see the chinese recovery economy shift away from its emphasis on heavy rate all of these issues came up in the president's meetings in beijing with his chinese counterparts the second priority is cooperation with china on the international security issues such as your iran and north korea and the third priority is coordination with the chinese on the subject of climate change and i think on climate change we achieved some progress both with the chinese and the international community in the context of the copenhagen conference several weeks ago in my opening statement highlighted some of the concerns when it comes to our policy approach toward china from what i can gather from last year's annual report to congress you share some of the same concerns regarding china a shift in strategic priorities and behavior especially as it expands its need for access to more markets and natural resources expanding and improving disruptive military technologies in areas such as space and cyber  space lack of transparency when it comes to military budget intentions and decision making and its increasing leverage in the region and around the world gentlemen what precisely is the president's china policy how is it different from his predecessor and how will it seek to address these shared concerns start with you  thank you sir i think from the military standpoint our approach to china is very much two fold it is first and foremost to seek to grow a relationship with china that encourages their constructive contributions to the security issues in the asia pacific region it's the purpose behind military to military dialogue it's the reason for  our emphasis to the chinese on the need for annuity some constancy and in terms of that dialogue we think that it's lagging behind the other engagements between our nation and the people's republic of china secondarily on on the issue of the ambiguities that currently exist the inconsistency is that we deal with in the asia pacific region we bear the responsibility to  ensure our forward presence and and the readiness of our forces in the region to assure our allies and partners in the region and to continue to grow those relationships as secretary gregson described in his opening comments so as to maintain security in the region that we've frankly been responsible for for the past one hundred fifty years so we will maintain our presence in the region as robustly as we have in the past as we continue to engage the chinese in dialogue and hopefully foster an improved relationship and get to some of the ambiguities that has been discussed thus far this morning thank you in the president's words stated to the chinese the security and economic dialogue as well as in beijing we seek a positive cooperative and comprehensive relationship with china as secretary gates secretary gates is interpretation or his characterization of our policy is that china is not a strategic adversary it is a partner in some respects but a competitor and others our defense strategy released in two thousand and eight states as you mentioned a chinese potential for competing with the united states and it us interaction will have to be long term multi dimensional and involve peacetime engagement between our defense establishment as much as it involves fielded military abilities it's impossible to separate our engagement with china from our engagement with the region are consistent and increased engagement with the region our enhancements of our alliances and partnerships there not only in the east asian region but increasingly through the indian ocean area will be essential to us shaping the environment that will allow us to also shape or develop cooperative comprehensive relationships with the chinese in order to build a positive cooperative and comprehensive relationship we are engaging with the chinese to seek out common interest and common interests and devise ways of of pursuing those common interests together this is a challenge this is not an easy task it can be very challenging while we share common interests our interests are not always identical and our bilateral relationship with china our approach to the region as a whole as well as maintaining our military strength in the region are all part of a comprehensive approach to developing the relationship with china china has is there shifting away from labor intensive operations and they're moving toward increasing production of high technology goods they've matured as a manufacturer an assembler of advanced technology projects products they've created and then attractive environment for foreign companies to make investments with increased subsidies tax incentives and preferential loans at the same time we're hearing concerns from industry that defense policy changes emergency emerging from the coupled with the recent anticipated cuts in d o d spending will force us industry to divest itself of certain capabilities reduce our production lines and inhibit you know they should gentlemen as a president develops his  china policy to what extent does us industrial policy enter into his decision making concern about our our workforce do you share my concern that the united states industrial base may be unable to sustain the technological innovation that's been the hallmark of u s military given the current physical environment can you provide specific examples of how the president's china policy seeks to address china's unfair trade policies and ensure that the u s military continues to have access to the manufacturing capacity technological capacity as for the materials necessary to equip our war fighters in the future if i may start start congressman with regard to china's unfair trade practices we have a multi pronged approach toward trade with china that includes pursuing cases in the w on chinese unfair trade practices and we achieved several successes last year in this regard particularly with the protection of intellectual property rights we are also informing enforcing our laws and regulations on trade and the president's decision on the four twenty one case on pyres is a case in point again we are also vigorously pursuing the chinese on the enforcement  of intellectual property rights over all as we as we as we pursue economic recovery i think attention to our technological capabilities will be central to the  my lane certainly the industrial base and and the production of our military capacities is and i would only offer that that the work that you do as a committee to help to  strengthen the united states industrial base on behalf of its military attention that you pay that and and i know that secretary gates emphasis on doing what we can to strengthen the u industrial base in support of our armed forces is of critical importance and i would offer one my thanks to you for your efforts in this particular area and again i offer my emphasis an industrial base that can support this military not in the near term but in the long term thanks thank you very much mr mckay and it's clear that china is developing an increasingly capable technical and industrial base it's also clear that they're able to procure certain items of foreign military goods and technology and reverse engineer it needs at the same time it's industrial espionage is not unknown our intelligence agencies and our technology control agencies exercises vigorous control as possible to colleges and universities the quality of the graduates that we are producing is maintained we have the advantage of qualified students from all over the world that want to come to the united states to go to our  schools and we are enriched by that process as is our entire educational and on into the industrial and technical base we need to make sure that we maintain that as a priority so that we can meet the goal that you set out that we maintain our thank you very much thank the gentleman dr snyder shake their of china so as a chinese as the chinese government sitting there looking ahead they see their greatest threat not the united states not taiwan not the japanese or and that is number one number one goal for that would you forget the length of time it's been since we had that devastating earthquake and then china that caught the world's attention probably longer than some of the because of what happened to the school buildings and i was surprised by the level of cracking down the chinese government exerted on parents trying to find out what happened as you look back at that would the school houses the loss of lives as well as the overall discussed destruction in sichuan province is very tragic we did everything we could to help the chinese recover from that  t i'm interested in the investigation internally about what occurred building codes and school building i believe my my belief is that the chinese government has conducted an investigation and that they have concluded that they need to and improve the building codes they have not been particularly transparent in the extent to which they've conducted this investigation they have as you say repressed dissent  threat they perceive is internal if you aggressively repress and stifle the efforts of parents to find out why their children died because of bad local government policies in terms of approval of of building codes isn't that an indication of evidence for your first statement i mean i don't know how to look at it other than they were apprehensive that somehow a local effort to figure out what happened with local building codes could turn into some kind of national movement because of the bad policies in those school buildings that could have occurred elsewhere is that a fair analysis i agree i  and in beijing i myself was one of the first was the first foreign service officer to study chinese in mainland china after nine hundred forty nine i went to the johns hopkins cent the american public at large great growth in chinese language teaching in high schools at the university level and in this regard the president announced a very strong initiative during his trip to increase the number of american students in china two hundred thousand over the next four years and we'll be working to implement that in the coming weeks and months thank you all for your service i think relative to dr snyder's question i would like to suggest that china has two concerns that largely eliminate their very aggressive military buildup the first is taiwan a tiny island the size of maryland three fourths of which is truly uninhabitable twenty million people versus a homeland of a billion three hundred million people why the big concern i think they see that it can declare its independence a lot of other regions like tibet for instance and they see their empire unraveling at taiwan can do this so i hope that we could resolve this concern diplomatically because i think china will will do anything necessary militarily to keep taiwan from declaring its independence the second major concern they have and admiral you mentioned that in the eight page of your prepared testimony energy i let a codel of nine members to china three years ago to talk about energy and they be their discussion of energy by talking about post oil we in the congress have a lot of trouble seeing beyond the next election and our business community is primarily focused on the next quarterly report the chinese are looking ahead decades and generations and they will indeed be a post oil world the chinese are now aggressively buying up oil all over the world and buying goodwill and mr secretary i asked the state department why w the days well that makes no difference who owns the oil who comes up that was that effect that global option with the dollars buys the oil so who owns oil makes no difference they told me the chinese revival oil because they didn't understand the marketplace i think they understand the marketplace very well and i think that that in the future the chinese will tell us guys i'm sorry but we own the oil and we cannot share it with the world to make that a reality they have to have a blue water navy big enough spread globally across the world far enough to protect all of the sea lanes for the for the passage of this of this oil to the extent that we continue to use of force of the world's oil that we have done nothing to reduce our demand for foreign oil we think i just i think we hasten the day that the chinese will tell us we're not going to share our oil with the world what should be our policy relative to energy because i think it's an overarching issue or oil is now eighty dollars a barrel the world will never ever again have sustained good times until we do something meaningful about alternative energy and so part of the world and we the united states have done nothing meaningful about aggressive conservation or alternative energy what we do be doing to avoid this real potential threat from the chinese to the ny access to oil because they own it congressman we're pursuing a dialogue with the chinese on the subject of energy security in which we have raised our concerns about chinese efforts to lock up reserves with long term contract contracts on foreign oil we have no meaningful program of conservation or development of alternative energy to we all is an incredible energy source the quantity and quality of energy and oil is unmatched anywhere in liquid great extent or you'd like to characterize that for us and how is it a sale of military technologies as an incentive to secure energy deals is that again a large part of their policy or to a beyond concerns of territorial defense and moving around the world in large part to protect their access to energy sources and to protect the lines of communication it would suggest  only defense policy for china to an extent but it also drives a lot of their foreign policy we tend to focus on development of the chinese navy thinking of the lines of communication from the persian gulf and saudi arabia is their biggest supplier of oil and coal is the second but there's also the chinese are also concerned with energy extraction mineral attraction in central asia and other areas so it is a definite  driver there policy sale of military technology is a concern particularly to states that are of keen interest to us such as sudan and others where arms deals have been negotiated and executed derives a conclusion that they're importing oil from there that there's a connection between the arms deals nevertheless well we suspect that connection we're concerned about regard in terms of energy is is that an issue that has some transparency in discussion or would you say again that that's a great concern to us but one that we're not able to do impact greatly i think the chinese have actually been quite vocal regarding their concerns over their sea lines of communication in particular as it relates to the movement of of all their commerce to include their trade but as well energy and and other natural resources they refer to in particular the malaki problem which is their choke point all of our choke point at the strait of malacca and the strategic value of that straighten the importance of protecting and securing those sea lines to include the various choke points that exist between the sources of those natural resources and commerce in china itself secretary gregson i think said it well there the expansion in their naval capacity and their air force  is certainly has a dimension to it that has to do with securing their regional commercial interests how far that will extend beyond the asia pacific region the south china sea region and  sea into the indian ocean region remains to be seen but they're demonstrating the capability to operate at longer ranges by virtue of their their assistance to the international counter piracy  more cooperative way or again not having quite the ability to have that a level of discussion that we're seeking and what are we doing about that at the same time we're discussing with the chinese energy security and regional security issues same time we're seeking more transparency from the chinese in their defense and security policies we are also strengthening our relationships  throughout the region particularly in southeast asia secretary clinton has visited visited southeast asia three times last year she is in the region again as we speak and  that remaining in contact with our friends and allies throughout the region particularly southeast asia will be important role in our addressing if i may touch very briefly on one aspect your question about transparency it's not strictly a defense equity but there is active engagement in the scientific and educational communities on  development of renewable energy between china and united states usually occurs in conferences and efforts under the cognizance of the department of energy or the department of interior so that's one encouraging sign that there is some thought to relationships before many members of congress and i just appreciate your leadership on that and also admiral thank you so much for your service for your wife's service i know that's a partnership team and for all of your staff i know the heavy work that they have to do just to come to a hearing like this mr secretary this year we appreciate so much all of the being here i'm going to try to ask my questions so that they can have shortened answers not because i want to cut you off because i love for you to extrapolate any way you want in the r assessment roughly roughly and that number doesn't exist in a vacuum isn't it significant that we try to extrapolate or actually get some idea of what their ship building plan actually  is we know how many ships they're going to be building over the next several months if we want to try to project our strength against theirs of course is that a significant component to our evaluation it is part of our broad evaluation of  if we look to the two thousand and nine military power of people's republic of china report to congress produced by the pentagon just a few months ago the estimate was that they had two hundred sixty ships correct i would have you to tell me what it is but do we currently have a ship building plan for the united states of america as you know it from the department there is a plan is delineated in the program and in the president's budget  so it exists now are you aware that by law the department of defense was supposed to give the united states congress that shipbuilding plan when they submitted the budget so that we would know and could make plan existed i would just submit the law required that we get a copy so we could make that same kind of comparison secondly this committee unanimously had a congressional inquiry demanding that you comply with the law the department since and give it to kid we'd be aboard panama or afghanistan or bosnia we always thought of you or against the russians that thank goodness did not happen with that in mind that things we don't expect to happen often do happen a logical assumption is that the weak link then carrier task force is the boiler that supplies that destroyer cruiser that protects the carrier if i'm a potential enemy of the united states i'm not going to hit us where  we're strong i'm going to hit us where week it is my understanding that we have a limited number of hours in the pacific somewhere between eight and twelve and so the logical question would be you know this is our enemies have been pretty good at finding out take out those eight or twelve boilers does the fleet fail to sail because one of the things that really congressman bartlett impressed upon is our need for energy dependence in the long term one of the ways that we can achieve that as we know is with a nuclear powered surface combattants each one of those can save about ten million gallons of fuel per ship per year plus you don't need that oil or you lose that week like congress has passed language just as our next generation of service combatants is going to nuclear power we passed legislation says the next generation of large that camp is going to nuclear power but what i don't see is the navy taking any steps to implement that that's one thing the short term increase those numbers so that worst case scenario doesn't  happen thank you representative taylor i think i bring up some provocative issues and that is how we handle some of the tactical level risks to our force compliment when we conduct major scale operations and and certainly the protection of our tanking assets at sea is a major factor in our planning and and in the way in which we attempt to mitigate potential vulnerabilities i think you know to your point regarding nuclear power we gain great flexibility with our aircraft carriers and our submarines being nuclear powered as you suggest our service ships  both of those we also have the capability though it's it's exercised rather rather rarely to refuel our service ships from our carriers themselves so our big deck ships have the opportunity to to conduct refueling of our smaller escort ships so between protection operations around them and the various ways in which  we can take advantage of geography and the force complement to conduct refueling we manage this problem and and our naval commanders are tasked with planning around it and and managing it very carefully i take your point that that refueling of our ships is is keenly an area that we have to focus on and the adequacy of our tanker f to be able to to ensure that we have the freedom of actions that we require in our operations is very important and admiral please the chairman is going to gavel this thing in thank the gentleman gentleman from minnesota mr kline thank you mr chairman thank you gentlemen for your service and for being here today i want to it seems like forever that we have been concerned with them worrying about china's role in a couple of places i'd like to touch on briefly some of which you already have one is of course one when general greg and i were lieutenants we were worried and china and what china's actions may be and in that case we were probably mostly worried about what the taiwanese government might do that might precipitate military action on the part of china and it seems we're sitting here today and we still have some of those concerns present mon taiwan and some new folks there may have changed some of that dynamic and i'd be interested in your discussing lifetime we've had u s forces in korea since before mr gregson and i were lieutenants and certainly before you were an ensign admiral and we still have troops there and and the quest here is  china's role in being able to influence actions in north korea particularly with their nuclear and missile activities we have three minutes and twenty two seconds of any of you or all of you can address both of those and how you see china where china is now and both of those issues relationship with taiwan the potential for military action there and how china is doing and helping us get back to the six party talks and what's going on in north korea thank you for that for those questions i'll go very quickly so my colleagues can jump in since the election of president taiwan and china have undertaken a series  all actions that we find very favorable direct flights visitations to offshore islands business ties all the sinews of normal peace time engagement that we think contributes to a decrease in tension and operates in support of our objective of peaceful settlement issues across the taiwan strait it's been mentioned more than a few times before we remain concerned about the build up of p r c military capabilities across the strait and we watch very carefully not only the amount of that build up but the types of systems that they're developing to make sure that we maintain a ability to fulfill our obligations under the taiwan relations act on north korea we are encouraged by china's support of u n security council resolution eight hundred seventy four very important to prevent north korea from profiting from their nuclear related technology their missile related technology very important to keep north korea from exporting any type of weapon systems that are prohibited under eight hundred seventy four china's support is essential to maintain an international consensus to keep eight seventy four a viable resolution very positively encouraged as i said about their development on that in the meantime we continue to ask china to exert their influence to work on their neighbor to  convince them of the wisdom of complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization which remains our goal with north korea and you're getting a good response from the chinese in that effort that's the i mean that's what we're getting down to we've said for a long time that we cannot we seeing that employments are just sort of quiet now we are seeing influence we would like to see more influence for our part we have made it quite clear that we intend to fulfill all of our obligations to our allies and we will take that to the extent that we are not successful in achieving complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization on north korea we will enhance those alliances and we will enhance our ability to enforce our alliance obligations and that that is a condition that contributes as much to instability in northeast we have spoken with the chinese since the test we've asked them for more information we've asked them to be more transparent with regard to this test in their testing in general the chinese have only responded so far that this particular test was  gregson china china may be our most important dialogue in asia right now but japan clearly remains the most important ally in the region as reports obviously with the new japanese government trying to seek or create or develop concept asia security group with between japan china and south korea recent statements indicate that maybe japan all along was intending to include the united states how would you discuss the japanese to strengthen the alliance secretary clinton met with foreign minister in honolulu yesterday they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the u s japan security treaty they re committed to strengthening  the program also includes continuous presence of japanese aviation in ground forces in guam and their training we look forward to rapid implementation of that as a way to adapt and really transform the military and security aspects of our alliance for the new century back to back to the back to the missile tests and this may be for a reacted very vocally and our military to military engagement has historically been suspended whether or not that's the case this time or not will remain to be seen i would offer that in  discussions that general shoe had with the secretary and with me on his way back to beijing we emphasized the need for constancy and that military to military dialogue and and we were explaining the mutual benefit of maintaining it whether or not differences arise between our governments or not so again i think we'll be testing the maturity of that military to military  relationship in the future not just over our legal obligation to conduct taiwan arms sales but over other issues between our governments as well thank you to my time is up  kaufman thank you mr chairman i'd like to ask the panel to address what i believe has become a very serious emerging national security threat as it relates to china it has to do  with industrial base supply issues controlled by china and not any specific military threat but i'm hoping given your background in your current positions focusing on nations to garner the benefit of your thoughts and for american innovation and domestic growth but the fact that so many national security and defense systems require these materials to function and operate is of greater concern at ninety five percent of world wide rare china's ministry of industry and information technology disclosed proposals to ban the export of rare earth elements and restrict of the remaining metals as early as next year that the relationship of economic development national development to the authority legitimacy of the leadership has been often discussed as a matter of speculation and the connection has been drawn and matter of fact it's been often stated that eight percent per year growth or better is necessary to maintain domestic tranquility within china while we watch that from the defense side we also watch the development of capabilities and we try and make sure that we have done everything we can to counter the capabilities we see on the other side relying on the fact that we can't read minds and read intentions with clarity we can draw inferences and we can get some ideas but we're not relying on the conditions of prosperity to to be a guarantee that nothing bad will happen where we're taking all the appropriate precautions to make sure we can reactive the situation worsens regardless of what the prosperity situation is across the strait i understand the points of your dinner companion and i think it's an interesting very interesting observation particularly from their side but on the defense side we remain  oriented on the capabilities chinese government certainly appeals to gnash chinese nationalist sentiment frequently but we don't see an uptick in that or an effort to blame chinese domestic problems foreign  sources as a result of the downturn and it looks to us like the chinese economy is turning around at eight percent growth last year i think they have may have eight to nine percent growth this year but we're not we're not seeing that nationally to evolve to and while europe later came to dominate the world china not to do that and if you look at the history since then of course the time period when the european nations tended to dominate r their national prospects i'm trying to get an idea in my mind what is the mindset of the chinese now have it has that changed or has it changed what you know we've talked about all the m b a that exist among what china may be doing for two secretaries if you had to narrow down what is the chinese mindset is it aggressive is a defensive is it we want to be equal to we won't respect what is the mindset of the chinese we're familiar with your your your view of chinese history from our historical spirit experience we see rising powers as a potential challenge to the international community we hope to avoid that in china's case by engaging intensively in china and i don't mean to interrupt but what is the chinese mindset understand how we view it but what do you think they long term how do are they trying to position and why i think the chinese want to express themselves as a as a as a major global power i think they've done that mostly economically so far i think that remains a lower priority on their list after securing communist power communist party  civility in power and after domestic economic development some of the large s that the benefits of being a world power that they were not able to do for the last couple of centuries and one other question going in a different direction i had read recently where water would be a great limitation towards china and its ability to continue you know its economic expansion just wonder what your thoughts are how that may figure out how much bigger then and what that might mean long term at conservative population growth estimations and conservative economic growth estimations there is the potential out there in the g river initiative right now is one way to try and manage water related items like fresh water fisheries and const arts in china and of course goes through southeast asia and anytime somebody puts a dam at one point on a river it affects everybody downstream those obvious things yes this is going to be an item of major concern thank you gentlemen to you about my time thank the gentleman the gentleman from new zealand mr fleming thank you mr chairman my question is for admiral willard as you know sir our aircraft carriers are a platform that we use to project power around the world this is certainly relevant to some the issues brought up about oil and energy in general it's my understanding that chinese have a  range ballistic missile the missile that can travel up to two thousand kilometers can easily attack an aircraft carrier and that we don't have any real antidote for that hopefully it's still under development and not fully capable so what what is our navy's plans to protect our aircraft here is given this potential shift in power  of one element of the anti access strategy by china there has been development of a ballistic missile capability that we believe is intended to target surface ships to include our aircraft carriers and it's on issue of of major concern we within our programs are developing capabilities to protect you know obviously protect our surface ships to include our aircraft carriers from that the details obviously we would need to discuss at some future opportunity in a closed session would you agree sir that  this may put even more emphasis on the need for the next generation bomber which is an air platform that is a stand off type of defense mechanism of attack mechanism if you will  that you know what we sort of laid that aside here recently and i'm wondering if maybe we need to take a stronger look at that deal what we're seeing here i think when we approached the anti access capabilities that are being developed here that we have to look broadly at all of the capabilities that provide us opportunities to  continue to operate with freedom of action inside the on below of that capability certainly our bomber force and any recapitalization of our bomber force extended range weapons as well as our ability to penetrate with our service ships and not give up access where we require it are all part of the defense strategy to accomplish that  member of the ranger all the same as a member of congress mr marshall taylor appreciate that i'm curious about the extent to which we connect back to china at some point might be more helpful to us where terrorism is concerned and specifically the efforts in iraq and afghanistan and our worries about pakistan and india and possible conflicts there go couple chinese colonels published a book called unrestricted warfare in the mid ninety's probably most of you have already read that at least read an executive summary of it and it's in and it and that piece that book explores the ways in which china can engage in conflicts with the united the things that these two colonels observe and the book's publication nine one one observes that the close relationship between america's political elite and the military industrial state combined with a militant to america's military expeditionary capacity means that it's only a matter of time before america gets itself involved in conflicts that might be holding back in assisting us with regard to iraq afghanistan and terrorism generally because this is something that's costing us an awful lot of money and so i just like general comments about pakistan ind which if you think about it given the nature of their balding economy they're going to be a target also eventually congressman with regard to the chinese approach to american economic health i think the chinese recognize that we have we are interdependent economically and that our economic relationship benefits both sides on the subject of terrorism we engage the chinese on this subject well to senior levels at the working level through a counterterrorism working group which has met recently in general our cooperation on counterterrorism issues  with the chinese is at a fairly basic level but we're working on it on the subject of afghanistan and south asia generally i think the chinese share our interest in  particularly in afghanistan it's right on china's border we have engaged the chinese fairly intensively on the subject of afghanistan special envoy holbrooke has been to beijing twice to discuss this subject with them  there we conducted exchanges with the chinese particularly in the run up to the olympics and we're continuing those exchanges but i'd say we have a very basic level what have we proposed that they do with regard to an interest in co op general interest in cooperation we conducted a working level meeting with the chinese to discuss specific ways in which we can work together on the ground in afghanistan before the president's visit in november i think they're thinking this through right now we've proposed such avenues of things they can do to help afghanistan in agricultural infrastructure infrastructure generally pass a bill any building and areas like that but we're still just beginning we're pressing the chinese on this what about assistance from china i know we're looking at different ways to get materials into afghanistan is there any movement where that's concerned that we're developing alternative lines of communication to avoid over dependence on the yellow seas through pakistan generally they involve the northern distribution network we don't know of an opportunity yet for china to contribute thank you mr chairman thank the gentleman mr franks well thank you mr chairman and thank you admiral willard i want to direct my first question you thank you just for your lifetime commitment to the cause of human freedom and all the things you know people like us up here talk a lot about the importance of protecting freedom and people like you personify it and we're really grateful to have you here today i was encouraged  about your discussion related to protecting some of our battle groups from emerging chinese missile technology and as you are probably very aware in the perry sessions your report it said that we had to be careful with long range perfect or develop a a mid range and long range missile defense capability they don't seem quite as concerned about that strategic balance maybe we are and so i guess my like my question to you can you talk to us a little bit about the chinese missile defense technology advances and specifically their medium for long range capabilities i would only offer that in terms of their missile defense capabilities that th ey are by and large still in the research and development stage is that this is a subject actually of inquiry regarding the most recent missile to missile engagement that has been witnessed and that the chinese of as we discussed earlier reported on over the past several days so these developments and and other developments are we would continue to watch but predicated on the notion that you know china has with their a set capability have pursued in you know in a phrase weaponized in space and it seems it's it's pretty clear to me that that's already happened but can you tell space their actions seem to indicate contrary intention we continue to press the chinese for explanation and we'd be happy to provide details in a closed session well chairman i guess i make the point all too often here that i think it's important as a country to maintain our missile the missile defense capability we seem to be moving into a dynamic militarily and otherwise in the future that that will be critical consideration for us and i think that we have a moral responsibility the citizens to be able to defend the us from any missile launched from anywhere on the globe at least that's the goal i know that mr reagan contemplated and hope for that and we can probably further than he even he contemplated at one point but i think the ultimate concern should still be to be able to to defend ourselves in that situation because in  world where radical rogue nations are potentially going to be part of that equation i think it's vital that we continue in that in the direction of developing that and and i think all of you for your efforts in that regard and your back mr chairman thank you from guam thank you very much mr chairman secretary gregson i appreciate working with you on the guam issues and look forward to your answers today and mr shear thank you for appearing before the committee and finally admiral willard thank you and i look forward to working with you as our new pack commander as you all may know i co chair the china caucus with my colleague congressman forbes and i have several questions regarding recent security developments in china and how it effects our posture in the asia pacific region secretary greg china wants to continue becoming a global power that has serious force projection capabilities pacific and if we are to remain a pacific power what other enhancements of our current military and civilian capabilities are needed to maintain a robust posture in the asia pacific  the two thousand and nine report to congress from the u s china economic and security review commission made a very intriguing finding and that is china's development of anti ship cruise missiles the report states and i quote according to the u s department of defense this missile will have a likely range one thousand five hundred kilometers be armed with maneuverable warheads and is intended to deny regional access to service ships of the opposing side when combined with appropriate surveillance and targeting systems this missile could have the potential to destroy or disable aircraft carriers and their associated battle groups while in transit and  i'm concerned by this pointing and would like to explore our deterrent capabilities in the pacific to respond to this growing tactical threat by the chinese and what types of deterrents are in place on our service fleet to combat this tactical weapon the chinese have developed a ballistic missile with extended range capabilities that we believe is intended to counter service ships they have also developed extended range cruise missiles  as you suggest for launch from their surface ships and from their submarines as part of a broader access strategy all of these developments capability developments in the capacities that that they're  wars from happening to prevent future contingencies from occurring and we've been very successful i would offer in for many decades now in accomplishing that and that is a cause that is by and large accomplished through our presence and posture in the region and that is unchanged regardless of these developments capabilities developments that you describe we maintain a presence on the waters in the region as we have for a century and a half and we intend to stay we think that the extended deterrence that the united states offers to our allies and partners in the region our presence to  ensure security of the sea lines of communication and our lines of communication in this part of the world are vital to our nation's security as well as to our nation's economy and the economies of our partners and thank you thank you  mr chairman and thank you gentlemen for being here today because of tied up in another manner i want to got here little bit later i want to ask you about something just for clarification i know in december of the year ago china began to revive its naval vessels to protect commercial ships navigating in the gulf of aden from the somali pirate attacks do you characterize this as a positive development with regard to u s chinese cooperation and are they willing and are currently working with the united states in cooperation these of the dealing with these pirates i would up from a from the pay com perspective we view it as as a very positive development it's a demonstration of the p r c s willingness to utilize their military capability  d in a way that is contributing to to other nations to the international betterment of security in that particular region of the world they began those opera rationed operating of the international regime that was put in place to coordinate the efforts by the many nations that are contributing to the any paris piracy effort over the years and now that this has been occurring i would offer that the p r c has grown closer to those regimes and to the extent that there is a line of communication that has been developed and a level of information sharing that is both contributing to their operations and also contributing to the operations of the combined task force that's engaged in counter piracy so to both your questions yes it's positive and yes they have grown closer to cooperating not just with the united states but with the international effort that is often foreign lad in the gulf of aden i concur completely with the admiral the freedom of navigation of this freedom of the seas freedom of navigation freedom of innocent commerce freedom of innocent passage is vitally important to both the united states and china as well as the rest of the world particularly considering the gulf of aden and where it sits across understand and to appreciate the norms of cooperation that have been established international task force out there while they still cannot for their own political reasons join the international task force there operating quote in cooperation with unquote the task force and informal lines of communication and cooperation are growing and we see this as overall a very positive development thank you with the limited time let me change to another subject i would speak for pacific command and our ability to contend with the security issues within my area of responsibility and and i believe i can do that i think that the the importance of maintaining our industrial base and continuing to recapitalize our service fleet in the navy is critically important and and as the pacific commander it's critically important to me that my naval component contribute the level of combat power that i require for the joint operations that we conduct to the question do we have enough ships to do that or do you feel like we're on course to maintain the level of the number of ships we need to do that i am satisfied with what the current budget and shipbuilding level of effort that we're pursuing in the united states navy to produce the ships that i require to accomplish my mission in the pacific beyond the number of ships do you feel like or if in fact there becomes a problem with the number of ships do you feel like we still have the capability otherwise to effectively counter the chinese  short answer is yes i currently the u s pacific command is contributing nearly three thirty thousand troops to the middle east and certainly for structure  to the two wars that are currently ongoing in our nation and as we determine our abilities to meet our obligations throughout the pacific to include the potential  for future contingencies in the western pacific i have to evaluate the associated risks for structures commitment to our two wars and what medications i'm obligated to put into place to ensure that i can perform my mission and and yes i believe i can do that we want to support you in that thank you mr chairman but thank the gentleman from north carolina the last question i would address to greg in light of the google news this morning and other recent attacks against american government sites how are we addressing the increase in the cyber attacks i think it's not only increased cyber attacks from china that the united states faces but increase eyebrow attacks a number of places including non state actors everybody with access to the net i understand that i'm about among other things we are standing up the cyber command as a sub unified command of strategic command we have a number of security procedures that have been put in place over the years throughout the department offense to protect our proprietary networks and we continue to research ways where we can enhance our defenses in the future this is an ever evolving  threat and we take it very seriously so any comments cyber security is a national priority for the administration truly after taking office the president directed at the national security council and national homeland security council conduct a top to jurisdiction of the same command is i'd like to take that for the record mr chairman thank you very much i certainly thank the witnesses today i think this is the first