China vows defence transparency

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing

Critics say China has not been honest about its defence spending

China has agreed to start reporting its military spending to the UN and resume a practice of giving data about import and export of conventional weapons.

Beijing says the moves are an important step towards promoting military transparency.

China is currently in the middle of a long-term project to modernise its armed forces.

But this has worried China's neighbours and more distant rivals such as the United States.

Since the early 1990s there has been double-digit growth in military spending nearly every year.

This year the military budget went up by 17.8%.

Just a few months ago the US defence department warned that China could be a major adversary in the near future.

One of the main complaints is that China is simply not honest about how much it spends on its military.

Experts believe the actual figure is two or three times greater than the one announced by the government.

The US military says this forces China's rivals to spend more on their armed forces.

China now says it will provide the UN with information about how much it is spending, and resume giving information on imports and exports for certain conventional weapons.

Beijing says this will increase mutual trust.

Foreign governments will no doubt want to see the figures before making a similar judgement.