While American political leaders and citizens are concentrating their attention on Iraq, the Chinese appear to have embarked on a long-range plan intended to challenge the United States for military superiority in Asia.

China's latest White Paper on defense asserts: "To build a powerful and fortified national defense is a strategic task of China's modernization drive." Using code words for the U.S., the paper says:

"Hegemonism and power politics remain key factors in undermining international security."

The white paper envisions three phases: to lay a solid foundation by 2010, make "major progress" by 2020, and reach the strategic goal of building armed forces capable of winning high-tech wars "by the mid-21st century."

The U.S. National Intelligence director, John Negroponte, reinforced that view on Thursday, telling the Senate Intelligence Committee: "We assess that China's aspirations for great-power status, threat perceptions and security strategy would drive this modernization effort even if the Taiwan problem were resolved." Taiwan is the disputed island off the China coast over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

In a report more candid than earlier versions, the 2006 paper says Chinese military spending from 1990 to 2005 rose at an annual average rate of 9.6 percent, after adjusting for inflation. That is the highest growth rate of defense spending among the world's large nations, and is rooted in China's rapidly expanding economy.

Beijing's military budget for 2006, the report says, was $35.9 billion, up from $31.3 billion the year before. U.S. intelligence analysts estimate that China's overall military spending is at least twice as much since many defense-related expenditures don't show up in published accounts.

The white paper indicates that most of the spending increases have gone into the navy, air force, and what the Chinese call the Second Artillery, which is their nuclear force. These are the services whose missions are to project power beyond China's borders and coasts.

"The Navy is working to build itself into a modern maritime force of operation consisting of combined arms with both nuclear and conventional means of operations," the paper says. The Chinese Navy, which lacks the history and experience of other maritime nations, "is enhancing research into the theory of naval operations and exploring the strategy and tactics of maritime people's war."

The Air Force is building both offensive and defensive capabilities, "reducing the number of combat aircraft (and) giving priority to the development of new fighters as well as air and missile defense systems," says the white paper issued last month.

The Second Artillery, which poses the most direct threat to U.S. bases and warships in the western Pacific, "is striving to build a streamlined and effective strategic force with both nuclear and conventional capabilities," the paper says.

Targeting of U.S. forces in East Asia is sometimes cloaked in euphemisms, but the meanings are clear. The white paper asserts: "Some developed countries have increased their input into the military and speeded up R&D (research and development) of high-tech weaponry to gain military superiority."

At other times, the white paper is forthright in disclosing how the Chinese see things: "The United States is accelerating its realignment of military deployment to enhance its military capability in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States and Japan are strengthening their military alliance in pursuit of operational integration."

Although the paper has an undertone of hostility toward the U.S., it acknowledges the benefits of military exchanges in 2006: "The Chinese Navy and the U.S. Navy conducted joint maritime search and rescue exercises in the offshore waters of San Diego." The U.S. Pacific Command, with headquarters in Hawai'i, has encouraged those exchanges to preclude China from miscalculating U.S. intentions.

One thing that has not changed and indeed is reinforced in the white paper: "China's armed forces are under the leadership of the Communist Party of China." In most other nations, the armed forces are under the control of the government and owe allegiance to the constitution or to the nation, not to a political party.

Nor is the Taiwan question neglected. The white paper, noting that China claims sovereignty over the island off its southeastern coast, contends:

"The struggle to oppose and contain the separatist forces for 'Taiwan independence' and their activities remains a hard one." The tone, however, seems less harsh than that of the 2004 white paper.

On the other hand, the People's Liberation Army has adopted a new policy that, if carried out, would gladden the hearts of soldiers in any army, anywhere: "The food supply for officers and men aims at providing sufficient nutrition rather than just serving enough food."

Richard Halloran is a Honolulu-based journalist and former New York Times correspondent in Asia. His column appears weekly in Sunday's Focus section.