Adam's Apple
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China's Defense: A Jump in Military Spending Sends a Few Signals
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial
March 14, 2006
China is going through the annual soul-searching occasioned by the opening of the National People's Congress, an event comparable to America's own State of the Union address.
Some of what is being said addresses directly and candidly some of the country's real social and political problems, particularly the disparity between the standard of living of those in the country's increasingly prosperous cities and that of the 800 million Chinese who live in the countryside, primarily as farmers.
The more potentially disquieting piece of Chinese policy that has emerged in these discussions is a 14.7 percent increase in the country's military spending. The official total -- if it is an honest figure -- will now stand at some $35.3 billion, less than 10 percent of America's own military expenditures. China, of course, seeks only a regional Asian military role, while the United States puts troops around the globe -- in Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Colombia, Afghanistan, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, consistent with what the Bush administration sees as the global reach of its international policies.
Closer to the bone and somewhat jarring, the announcement of the major increase in the Chinese defense budget came right on the heels of another provocative action on the part of the president of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian. Mr. Chen announced the dissolution of the National Unification Council, which was supposed to be the locus of discussions of the eventual reintegration of Taiwan into China, a very sensitive point for Beijing. The Chinese government chose to see this symbolic act as decidedly negative, and took the occasion to warn Taiwan one more time about the consequences of seeking to move toward independence.
The United States cannot welcome the increase in Chinese firepower. Nor can it welcome any action on Taiwan's part to pull the tail of the Beijing dragon, given America's own spread-eagled military stance, with 140,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06073/669801.stm
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial
March 14, 2006
China is going through the annual soul-searching occasioned by the opening of the National People's Congress, an event comparable to America's own State of the Union address.
Some of what is being said addresses directly and candidly some of the country's real social and political problems, particularly the disparity between the standard of living of those in the country's increasingly prosperous cities and that of the 800 million Chinese who live in the countryside, primarily as farmers.
The more potentially disquieting piece of Chinese policy that has emerged in these discussions is a 14.7 percent increase in the country's military spending. The official total -- if it is an honest figure -- will now stand at some $35.3 billion, less than 10 percent of America's own military expenditures. China, of course, seeks only a regional Asian military role, while the United States puts troops around the globe -- in Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Colombia, Afghanistan, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, consistent with what the Bush administration sees as the global reach of its international policies.
Closer to the bone and somewhat jarring, the announcement of the major increase in the Chinese defense budget came right on the heels of another provocative action on the part of the president of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian. Mr. Chen announced the dissolution of the National Unification Council, which was supposed to be the locus of discussions of the eventual reintegration of Taiwan into China, a very sensitive point for Beijing. The Chinese government chose to see this symbolic act as decidedly negative, and took the occasion to warn Taiwan one more time about the consequences of seeking to move toward independence.
The United States cannot welcome the increase in Chinese firepower. Nor can it welcome any action on Taiwan's part to pull the tail of the Beijing dragon, given America's own spread-eagled military stance, with 140,000 troops in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06073/669801.stm