Mandy @ POLI 333D

This is a to-be-published and detailed Economist article on China’s military rise. As first, I was a bit irritated because I thought it is another article which aims to create fear of China, but as I read on, I find it to be quite neutral, at least in terms of its portrayal of China-US relations.

According to the article, “the threat from China should not be exaggerated” because

1. China would constrain its military ambition, which would threaten its national interests in the world economy. As well, China would likely maintain its military spending at 2% of GDP, especially because its needs to spend money in other areas such as internal security and health care.
2. Even the West is ambivalent about how they prefer China to exercise its military power in the global system. After all, maybe China’s military expansion is not for strengthening national defense but international security?
3. “China’s military technology has suffered from the Western arms embargo imposed after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.” Therefore, China has been struggling to professionalize its defense industry.
4. The PLA has little combat experience since the 1979 was against Vietnam

I particularly like the point that “China’s leaders will continue to worry more about internal threats to their control than external ones.” Because I think it has brought new light to the democratic peace theory. Overall, it is not autocracies but democracies, which tend to wage wars against autocracies with the claim to promote peace.

* this is an extra elective post 🙂

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