BEIJING (NYT) — China said Tuesday that it faces threats from independence movements related to Taiwan, Tibet and the western desert region of Xinjiang, and that American arms sales to Taiwan jeopardize stability in Asia.

The assessment came in a white paper on national defense released by the State Council, China’s cabinet. The paper said that “China’s security situation has improved steadily,” but that “being in a stage of economic and social transition, China is encountering many new circumstances and new issues in maintaining social stability.”
The 105-page paper sought to portray China as a power that would use military force only defensively and sees territorial integrity as the top defense priority.
According to goals implied in the paper, China also seeks to counterbalance the American military presence in Asia. In several instances, the authors pointed out what they called worrisome aspects of American intervention.
“The U.S. has increased its strategic attention to and input in the Asia-Pacific region, further consolidating its military alliances, adjusting its military deployment and enhancing its military capabilities,” the paper said.
Certain destabilizing factors outside China are growing, the paper added, singling out American arms sales to Taiwan, which could lead to “serious harm to Sino-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” China considers Taiwan a breakaway province.
Last October, the Pentagon announced it was selling $6.5 billion of weaponry to Taiwan despite protests from Beijing. The package included 30 Apache attack helicopters, 330 Patriot missiles and 32 Harpoon missiles that can be launched from submarines. The Taiwan Relations Act, passed in 1979 when the United States normalized relations with China, states that the United States will provide arms of a defensive nature to Taiwan.
In presenting the white paper on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said he hoped the Obama administration would build stronger military relations between the United States and China.
“At present, when China-U.S. military-to-military relations are faced with difficulties, we call on the U.S. Department of Defense to remove obstacles,” the spokesman, Senior Col. Hu Changming, said at a news conference.
Although Taiwan enjoys de facto independence, the Chinese government has long maintained that it hopes to reunite Taiwan with the mainland and that it will prevent any move by Taiwan toward formal, legalized independence, by force if necessary. Under Taiwan’s previous president, Chen Shui-bian, relations with the mainland grew tense because Chen’s policies moved Taiwan closer to formal independence, prompting bellicose reactions from Beijing.
But following the election in Taiwan last year of Ma Ying-jeou, a member of the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, whose members fled the Communist takeover of China in 1949, the Taiwanese government has taken a more conciliatory approach toward the mainland.
The white paper grouped separatist forces in Taiwan — meaning supporters of Mr. Chen and his policies — with groups that China says are seeking independence for Tibet and Xinjiang. “Separatist forces working for ‘Taiwan independence,’ ‘East Turkestan independence’ and ‘Tibet independence’ pose threats to China’s unity and security,” the paper said.
Last year, violence erupted in Tibet and Xinjiang that challenged the country’s security forces.
Since 2001, when the Bush administration announced its “war on terror,” the Chinese government has said it faces an organized terrorist independence movement in Xinjiang, an oil-rich area that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic-speaking ethnic group. Many Uighurs are resentful of rule by the ethnic Han Chinese, and some openly advocate an independent country called East Turkestan.
Last March, riots and protests erupted across Tibetan areas of China, prompting a harsh crackdown. The Chinese government has accused the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, of organizing the uprising, which the Dalai Lama has denied.
China officially allocated $61 billion to defense spending last year, an 18 percent increase over 2007. The Pentagon says China actually spends much more than that amount on its military.
The white paper made no mention of construction of an aircraft carrier, which Chinese military officials have said is a project under consideration. It did say that “efforts are being made to build new types of submarines, destroyers, frigates and aircraft.”