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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:37 am Post subject: China increases military spending |
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China increases military spending
By David Lague
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
BEIJING: China announced a further sharp increase in military spending Tuesday, as the United States renewed its warning that a lack of transparency surrounding the rapid buildup of the Chinese armed forces posed a threat to stability.
China's military budget for 2008 would increase by 17.6 percent to 417.77 billion yuan, or $58.8 billion, Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the Chinese Parliament, the National People's Congress, said at a news conference.
This follows a 17.8 percent increase announced in 2007.
Ahead of the annual parliamentary session, which begins Wednesday, Jiang also said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait was "grim and complex" and called on the Taiwanese president, Chen Shui- bian, to halt what Beijing describes as moves toward independence.
China has posted double-digit increases in annual defense outlays most years in the past two decades to pay for an array of modern weapons and better training and conditions for its 2.3 million-strong military, the world's biggest standing force.
Foreign security experts in the United States and elsewhere say that Beijing's real defense spending is two or three times the announced figure and that these sustained increases have put China on track to become a major military power and the country most capable of challenging U.S. dominance in East Asia.
They also say that China's main objective is to develop the firepower to overwhelm Taiwan in the event of conflict while deterring or delaying any U.S. forces sent to help defend the self-governing island.
Senior Chinese officials dismiss these assessments.
Jiang said the moderate increase in spending this year was purely defensive and would allow for upgraded equipment along with better pay and benefits for service personnel.
As a proportion of government outlays, it was less than the United States, Russia, India and France spend on their militaries, he added.
"China's limited armed forces are totally for the purpose of safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," Jiang said. "China will not pose a threat to any country."
In its annual report to Congress on the Chinese military, released Monday, the Pentagon said the international community had limited knowledge of the motivation behind China's accelerating buildup and the capabilities it was developing.
Beijing had yet to give detailed reasons for its modernization or publish complete figures on military spending, the report said.
"The lack of transparency in China's military and security affairs poses risks to stability by increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation," it said.
In Beijing, the Chinese government criticized the Pentagon report, saying it distorted the facts.
"We demand the U.S. abandons cold war thinking and correctly recognizes China and China's development and revises the mistaken ways of the report," said Qing Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, according to Reuters.
"I want to stress that we oppose some countries or some people using so-called 'transparency' to propagate the so-called 'China threat theory' and interfere in China's internal affairs," he added.
A series of senior U.S. military officers and Defense Department officials visiting China in recent months have pressed their hosts to allow greater access to Chinese bases and facilities. They have also called for more communication between the two militaries in a bid to build trust and understanding.
But some senior U.S. officers have said that China was unlikely to comply with these requests because secrecy is a fundamental element of Chinese strategic thinking.
Chinese analysts counter that the United States is also secretive about its capabilities, maintaining tight security around its most advanced weapons, technology and contingency planning.
But in a sign that both sides realize communication could be important to avoiding accidental clashes or miscalculation, China and the United States agreed last Friday to set up a telephone hot line between the two militaries.
"The hot line is aimed at providing instant contact between Chinese and U.S. defense and military leaders on major issues, especially during emergencies," Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, quoted senior Chinese Defense Ministry officials as saying.
In its report, the Pentagon said China announced a military budget for 2007 of $45 billion but the U.S. Defense Department estimated total military spending for that period at between $97 billion and $139 billion.
It said that in the short term, the People's Liberation Army was preparing to win short, intense conflicts against high-technology adversaries in areas close to China's borders.
"Consistent with a near-term focus on preparing for Taiwan Strait contingencies, China deploys many of its most advanced systems to the military regions opposite Taiwan," it said.
The report also said China had the most active ballistic missile program in the world.
By November 2007, the Chinese military had deployed about 1,000 short-range ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan and was adding 100 missiles to this force each year, it said.
China regards self-governing Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to block moves toward formal independence.
In the final months of his second and final term, Chen, the Taiwanese president, has angered the mainland with his plan to hold a referendum alongside the presidential election on March 22 that will ask voters to support the island's bid to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan rather than its formal name, the Republic of China.
Jiang said Tuesday that the referendum was a move toward independence and would endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Asia-Pacific region.
"If the Chen Shui-bian authorities should stubbornly continue down the path, they will surely pay a dear price," he said. |
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10691808 |
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stillnotking
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| Always amusing to see the Pentagon yelling at people for a lack of transparency. Oh kettle, thou art black. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| stillnotking wrote: |
| Always amusing to see the Pentagon yelling at people for a lack of transparency. Oh kettle, thou art black. |
The Chinese are in a whole different world on this. Ideally, I'd like both to be perfectly open and transparent, but the Chinese "peaceful rise" theory depends on the world having no clue whatsoever as to how much is being spent, on what, and with what intention.
This is a serious problem in all of East Asia. The Chinese have no hegemonic ambitions outside of East Asia (with some African and Central Asian exceptions) but they do except East Asia to bow three times and say "yes sir". The Chinese see themselves as the origion of all East Asian culture, and this is deeply resented in many nations.
East Asia is their sphere of influence, or so they reckon. It is for this reason that the United States is very warmly welcomed as a military power in many nations in this region. The Chinese rise needs to be balanced.
So, yes. The Pentagon could be and should be more open. But the level of secrecy in the Chinese military buildup is freaking out military planners in nations like Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, India and elsewhere. They should, for the sake of regional stability, be far more transparent. But regional stability might not be in their long term interests.
Anyways, back to the regular scheduled bashing. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:25 am Post subject: |
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$50 billion doesn't approach challenging Japo-Indian-American hegemony.
It does fund plenty of cracking of Chinese skulls. |
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stillnotking
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Location: Oregon, USA
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:33 am Post subject: |
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I'm not in the least worried about "challenges to American hegemony". It could use some challenging. As Czarjorge said in the other thread, it's not like China is going to start a war with the United States -- or anyone else. Why would they?
They want Taiwan back, yes. How far they'd be willing to go to get it back is an open question. I can't see them actually mounting an invasion unless they thought they could get away with it under cover of some other momentous world event. It's been independent for sixty years in the face of much more hard-line Chinese governments. I have no doubt that the Chinese might take opportunistic advantage if the stars aligned properly, but they're not going to force the issue. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:45 am Post subject: |
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Chinese hegemony in Asia has meaning beyond war. Do you know what hegemony means?
History has not ended. China is a traditional nation-state that will aggressively promote her interests at home and abroad. This is a fact, and a fact that greatly distresses many other states in the region. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:51 am Post subject: |
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| stillnotking wrote: |
They want Taiwan back, yes. How far they'd be willing to go to get it back is an open question. I can't see them actually mounting an invasion unless they thought they could get away with it under cover of some other momentous world event. It's been independent for sixty years in the face of much more hard-line Chinese governments. I have no doubt that the Chinese might take opportunistic advantage if the stars aligned properly, but they're not going to force the issue. |
China will not force the issue, because right now they have Taiwan.
The Taiwanese have helped build the Shanghai basin. Southeastern China has benefitted immensely from Taiwanese investment. The Chinese are not actually going to attack Sugardaddy. But, they will use Taiwan to justify massive defense spending.
Its not any less a military-industrial complex because its China. Its just more disgusting because the military can be deployed against Chinese citizens. |
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