"U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course," a study sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent private research group based in New York was released on April 10. Co-chairs for the study were Carla Hills, a former U.S. trade representative, and Dennis Blair, former president and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center.
On China's test to destroy one of its own old weather satellites in January. The study said it increased the country's military threat to Taiwan by demonstrating a limited ability to blind the U.S. satellites that would be deployed in defense of the island.
While China can damage Taiwan with missiles, the study said, "it can only take and hold Taiwan if it can win and sustain control of the space, air and waters around Taiwan - a difficult task without U.S. intervention, and nearly impossible should the United States intervene in a China-Taiwan war."
"China does not need to surpass the United States, or even catch up with the United States, in order to complicate U.S. defense planning or influence U.S. decision-making in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait or elsewhere," the study said.
It added, however, that there is no evidence to support the notion that China will become a peer military competitor of the United States by 2030. It said the United States must try to integrate China into the global community with the goal of building on areas where interests converge, or potentially converge, and narrowing areas of differences.
When China's conduct is at odds with U.S. vital interests, the United States must be prepared to defend itself with all the elements of its national power. (Source: George Gedda, AP, Las Vegas Sun, Apr 10, 2007).