Robert Gates, US defence secretary, has for years been pressing China to be more transparent about the nature and scale of its arms build-up. He may now be regretting what he wished for. Mr Gates was welcomed to China this week with the first test flight of its military’s J-20 stealth fighter. That can only be seen as a deliberate snub and show of force to the US defence secretary, who had questioned China’s ability to build a credible strike fighter fleet much before 2020.
美國(guó)國(guó)防部長(zhǎng)羅伯特?蓋茨(Robert Gates)多年來(lái)一直在向中國(guó)施壓，要求中國(guó)在軍備建設(shè)的性質(zhì)和規(guī)模方面更加透明。他現(xiàn)在或許會(huì)對(duì)自己的做法感到后悔。蓋茨本周訪華時(shí)，歡迎他的是中國(guó)殲-20隱形戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)的首次試飛。中國(guó)此舉只能被看作是有意要滅蓋茨威風(fēng)，向其炫耀武力。這位美國(guó)國(guó)防部長(zhǎng)曾質(zhì)疑中國(guó)是否有能力遠(yuǎn)在2020年到來(lái)之前，建成一只確實(shí)有效的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)隊(duì)。