US admiral lectured by Beijing counterpart during press call

THE United States is spending too much on its military in light of its economic troubles, China's top general has said.

The chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, Chen Bingde, yesterday told reporters he thought the US should cut back on defence spending for the sake of its taxpayers. He was speaking during a joint news conference in Beijing with visiting US counterpart Admiral Mike Mullen, pictured, the first such visit in four years.

"I know the US is still recovering from the financial crisis," the general said. "Under such circumstances, it is still spending a lot of money on its military and isn't that placing too much pressure on the taxpayers?"

General Chen also said China is more than two decades behind the US in terms of military technology and Beijing needs to add hardware such as aircraft carriers.

"China is a big country, and we have quite a number of ships, but these are only small ships and this is not commensurate with the status of a country like China," he said. "Of course, I hope that in future we will have aircraft carriers."