The United States has some concerns about a rising China, including a military expansion that may be excessive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Beijing has spent heavily in recent years on adding submarines, missiles, fighter planes and other high-tech weapons to its arsenal and extending the reach of the 2.3 million-member People's Liberation Army, the world's largest fighting force.

Its reported military budget rose more than 14 percent this year to $35.3 billion, but outside estimates of China's true spending are up to three times that level.

"There are concerns about China's military buildup," Rice told a television interviewer. "It's sometimes seemed outsized for China's regional role."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHINA?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[It's ironic that US's own (multinational industry lobbied) global economic schemes have made China into a world major power.]