China on track for modern military by 2020: U.S.
China appears on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a rapid buildup that could be potentially destabilizing to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Fueled by its booming economy, China’s military growth in the past decade has exceeded most U.S. forecasts. Its aircraft carrier program, cyber warfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbors and Washington.
Some China watchers, including members of the U.S. Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defense spending coincides with Washington’s plans for defense cuts.
This is nothing new. Amuzikman has already posted here the gist of an exchange between Obama and Chinese Premier Hu on the occasion of Hu’s visit to the USA.
All chuckles aside, this is really no laughing matter.
I think this recent news shows that China is a more serious problem than some want to admit. Given that it is the Pentagon that produced this report, and it is the Pentagon that has been listening to Thomas P.M. Barnett (perhaps rather more than it should have been), maybe this is a sign that some degree of realistic understanding is developing of the long term nature of Chinese intentions.
The Chinese think LONG TERM, in a way almost no American can quite understand.
One thing I don’t get about the folks who think China isn’t a big problem is this: intelligence types talk about both capabilities and intentions. It used to be we mistrusted Chinese intentions, but didn’t think their capabilities were close enough to ours to be a real danger. Now that Chinese capabilities are growing fast, analysts like Barnett seem to want us to think less suspiciously of Chinese intentions. That kind of wishful thinking seems a poor substitute for actual, hard planning about what we’ll do as a nation regarding a China with high capabilities AND bad intentions.
Given that we KNOW who China supports, who China funds, what China wants, and what China’s history is in the last 50 years of working against US and western interests, this notion that all China really wants to do is sell us stuff, and they’re only building a modern military to increase their self-esteem, seems like whistling in the dark to me.
I keep thinking about this.
August 27th, 2011 8:00 am
This is especially important for me as I have been paying into this retirement system for the last 20 years and will not likely see any of that money ever again. Thanks politicians and liberal friends; you make life so wonderful for the rest of us. Too bad I can’t just opt out and put my own money away.
I think that smart state employees have long recognized that this would happen and thus have taken their own steps to save for their own retirement. It is really foolish to trust others to take care of one’s finances, and really is not Biblical.