Economists predict that China will become the world’s largest economy by 2030 or 2035 (to be eclipsed by India which has a younger demographic profile by 2050). So it is inevitable that that China will be a strong competitor for resources like oil. This safe prediction shoots a big hole in the neo-conservatives’ “Plan for a New American Century” which calls for the U.S. military to be used as an instrument to spread U.S. economic and political domination over the globe. So naturally China is taking big time exception to the Pentagon’s long term plans which have been developed under Donald Rumsfeld’s stewardship – himself a neo-conservative. No one would argue that the United States has to be prepared for future exigencies, but blatant militarism is perceived as a threat no only by China but also by many inside this country including me.
It should also be noted that China currently owns a significant and growing share of U.S. foreign debt, and China is currently the United States’ number one trading partner. Juxtapose those facts with the prediction that Chinese military might may threaten U.S. supremacy, and we have antagonistic forces at work within the Bush administration’s China policy. Of course, the Bush administration uses a future Chinese threat as a reason for increasing the U.S. military budget every year. Is a news arms race with China inevitable?
Beijing protests US military report singling out China as military threat
Beijing protests US military report singling out China as military threat
02.07.2006, 06:07 AM
BEIJING (AFX) – Beijing protested against a US Pentagon report that singled out China as a potential threat to Washington’s military supremacy and said it had made diplomatic representations over the issue.
The report ‘made groundless accusations over the normal national defense development of China, interferes with China’s internal affairs (and) plays up the theory of a China military threat,’ foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan was quoted as saying in a report by Agence France-Presse.
‘We are opposed to this and have made solemn representations to the US side.’
The four-yearly report on the US military outlook that was released last week, entitled the Quadrennial Defense Review, noted China’s steady but secretive military build-up since 1996.
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