Rumsfeld, making his first visit here in his current position, said China will have to make choices between its desire for continued economic growth and efforts to control outside influences and access to information.

"Obviously, those of us in the United States and in other countries around the world hope that they make choices towards a more open society," he told reporters as he flew here from Washington.

"But obviously it is up to the People's Republic of China to make its decisions as to how it wants to arrange itself from a political, economic and security standpoint," he said.

"But as they make those decisions, the rest of the world sees those decisions and makes judgements about it."

A major US concern is a Chinese military buildup that the Pentagon says is tipping the balance of power against Taiwan and could alter the military balance in the region.

China still claims Taiwan as its territory awaiting reunification, despite the island being ruled separately since 1949 following a civil war, and has vowed to take it back by force if necessary.

Taiwan is considered the most contentious issue in China-US relations and Beijing is strongly opposed to the US commitment to provide Taiwan the means to defend itself.

Shortly after Rumsfeld arrived, China Tuesday warned the United States against selling arms to Taiwan.

"We're strongly opposed to the United States having any form of military exchange or cooperation with Taiwan, including providing arms to Taiwan," foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a regular briefing.

Taiwan's defense ministry has been trying to get legislative approval for a massive 10-billion-dollar arms purchase from the United States including advanced submarines and aircraft.

Rumsfeld drew attention to China's arms buildup in a speech in Singapore in June, which was followed by a Pentagon report that said China's military spending -- an estimated 90 billion dollars a year -- was two to three times greater than disclosed.

He said he did not know why China was investing so much in the weapons, which according to US intelligence estimates include 650 to 730 short-range missiles deployed to garrisons opposite Taiwan.

"I think it's interesting that other countries wonder why they would be increasing their defense effort at the pace they are and yet not acknowledging it," he said.

"It is almost as interesting as the fact that it is increasing at the pace it is," he said.

Rumsfeld indicated that he would be observing what his Chinese hosts say and do during his two-day visit to get a sense of where they are headed.

He meets Wednesday with President Hu Jintao and Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, and is being given an unprecedented visit to the headquarters of China's strategic nuclear forces.

China is expected to bring into service new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, extended-range ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles over the next several years, according to the Pentagon.

Rumsfeld is also taking part in a roundtable discussion with students at the Central Party School.

The visit will help set the stage for President George W. Bush's visit to China in the third week of November.

"It's not so much what I would like to see them do. I'm interested in what they would like to do," Rumsfeld said of the Chinese. "It tells us about them. Watching their behavior is revealing."

"The world then has a chance to see how they plan to chart their path, their course," he said. "And the world is interested in that."

US defense officials said they expected no major breakthroughs.

He is also visiting South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania during the week-long tour.

Rumsfeld said he probably would have visited China sooner had it not been for the incident in 2001 when a US Navy EP-3 surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter collided in mid-air.

The Chinese fighter crashed, and its pilot was killed, but the crippled US plane managed to land at a Chinese airbase where its crew was held for nearly two weeks, an episode that poisoned relations between the two militaries.

The military-to-military ties have mended slowly with ship visits and high-level exchanges.

Rumsfeld said the United States wants better military ties with China.

"The question is if we can find ways to do it that are comfortable from both nations' standpoint," he said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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