Japan

[hoj]

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said China's military buildup would pose a future threat if the Chinese government decides to exercise its potential power.

``I believe their military capability today is not really that great, but if at the current pace they continue to build up their military, then in the future they could become a major threat,'' he said in a recorded interview on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program.

Fukuda, 71, said China didn't appear to have aggressive intentions, saying the issue ``is not whether you have a capability; whether the country has the will to use it, that's the crux of the matter,'' he said. ``I am quite optimistic about that'' in the case of China, he said.

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