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Chinese president Hu says his country no military threat

AFP - Friday, May 9

TOKYO (AFP) - - Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a visit to repair ties with Japan, pledged Thursday that his country would never become a military threat.

Both Japan and its main ally, the United States, have repeatedly voiced concerns about China's military spending, which has grown by double digits every year for two decades.

"China will take defensive military policy and will not join any arms race," Hu said in an address at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University that was broadcast live in Japan.

"We will not become a military threat to any country and we will never assert hegemony or be expansionistic," he said.

Hu is the first Chinese leader in a decade to visit Japan, which has been working to repair ties with Beijing.

Relations between Asia's two largest economies have long been mired by disputes linked to Tokyo's past aggression in China.

In rare public remarks for a Chinese leader that triggered roaring applause, Hu thanked Japan for its years of low-interest loans, saying they helped his country to develop.

"We have achieved unprecedentedly large growth, but we are also aware that we are the world's biggest developing country," Hu said.

"We have a long way to go to build a greater society for more than one billion people and to achieve affluence for all people of the nation. We have to continue to make efforts patiently."

Hu stressed China would maintain its "open-door" policy to foreign investment but would "continue to move ahead with our ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics."

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