By Ernest Corea* Courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
China's use of a quirky, near archaic epithet to deride a U.S. Department of Defence (Pentagon) report shows how carefully the transformation of that country's political invective has been managed. The Pentagon is no longer the home of that forgotten cold war favourite, "war-mongering, capitalist running dogs." Instead, say the Chinese, the Pentagon has concocted and spread a "cock and bull" story. The document that riled China is the Pentagon's 'Annual Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China' whose production is mandated by Congress. The report comes in both classified and unclassified form.
The "pace and scope of China's military modernization have increased over the past decade," says the unclassified version. The military makeover comes on top of great progress in economic growth and development.
All this and more amounts to a "cock and bull story," a condescending comment that was made by China's Xinhua news agency and not direct by the government of the People's Republic. Xinhua, however, is widely assumed to reflect official policy in its commentaries.
INCREASED OPTIONS
China's armed forces, in the Pentagon's perception, have increased their "options for using military force to gain diplomatic advantage or resolve disputes in its favour." Components of that increase include modernization of nuclear forces by adding more survivable delivery systems, successful development of the most active land-based ballistic and cruise missile program in the world, diversification of air and naval forces giving them both more power and flexibility, and maintenance of 1.25 million personnel in its ground forces.
At the core of China's military modernization is "informatisation," the process by which modern information technology is incorporated into military planning and practice. Chairman Jiang Zemin introduced the term to the Chinese politico-military lexicon in 2002, and it was institutionalized by the armed forces two years later. "Informatisation" facilitates, perhaps requires, "joint operations" in which all branches of the armed services are collaboratively deployed
This approach has required the development of new weapons systems, the upgrading of existing ones, and the acquisition of science and technology knowledge from abroad, sometimes by less than straightforward means. Examples of espionage are listed in the Pentagon report.
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
The report describes China's overall strategic priorities as "perpetuating Chinese Communist Party rule, sustaining economic growth and development, maintaining domestic political stability, defending China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and securing China’s status as a great power."
Take out the reference to maintaining one party rule, and this becomes a definition whose core principles would be acceptable as a "working model" for most nations that are considered to be among the world's powers. And, despite the smirk of smugness, most observers will find acceptable China's definition of its internationalism that the Pentagon quotes. Here it is:
"China has become an important member of the international system and the future and destiny of China have been increasingly closely connected with the international community. China cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world nor can the world enjoy prosperity and stability without China."
That's from China's 2008 Defence White Paper.
Based on these strategic principles, China has devised a number of missions for its armed services. As currently defined, says the Pentagon, these include:
- Provide an important guarantee of strength for the party to consolidate its ruling position.
- Provide a strong security guarantee for safeguarding the period of strategic opportunity for national development.
- Provide a powerful strategic support for safeguarding national interests.
- Play an important role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development.
PEACE KEEPING
China has undertaken numerous external initiatives that are expected to "enhance China's national power by improving foreign relationships, bolstering its international image and assuaging other countries concerns about China's rise."
For instance, it is a little known fact that China has consistently supported UN peace keeping assignments. China's military have been deployed in over 20 such operations, and China currently leads among the Security Council's five permanent members in its peace keeping engagements.
Other external initiatives include counter-piracy activity in the Gulf of Aden, combined training with other countries for search and rescue operations, and counter-terrorism. A training exercise in collaboration with Singapore focused on action to be taken in the event of a terrorist attempt to use nuclear weapons. Other countries with which China has collaborated include Gabon, Pakistan, and Russia.
To increase its foreign presence, China is expected to appoint military attaches to its diplomatic missions in 109 countries, send over 100 goodwill military missions abroad, and receive over 200 foreign delegations in China. High-level strategic consultations, professional and technical exchanges, and study exchanges for mid- and junior grade officers are planned.
Linkages with the U.S. have been and will continue to be part of this process through military-to-military contact, as well as through strategic dialogue covering economic, military and political matters. Inevitably, these will be disrupted from time to time when Taiwan-related issues intervene, as they will until "Taiwan issues" are resolved. In pursuing such a resolution time and history are surely on China’s side.
SELF DEFENCE
Sovereign nations tend to be less than amused when other sovereign nations pronounce judgment on their policies and programs. Thus, for instance, many nations were angered by the U.S. State Department’s practice – now dropped – of listing the number of times each UN member nation had voted "with" or "against" the U.S. during each annual session of the UN General Assembly.
That form of reporting, too, was mandated by Congress. It implied that member nations were required to cast their votes at the UN in support of U.S. national interests and not in relation to their own. Sometimes, these coincided with those of the U.S. At others, they did not.
China's reaction to the annual Pentagon report is in very much the same spirit that permeated reactions to the UN voting tally.
Said Xinhua: "For many in China, it is weird that the Pentagon, whose expenditure reached $700 billion and accounts for an appalling 40 percent of the world's total in arms sales in 2010, routinely points its finger at China, whose military only spends a small fraction of what the Pentagon consumes every year."
Xinhua described its military policy as self-defensive, and stressed that China has not despatched a single combat soldier overseas in the past two decades.
China is on firm ground when it claims a right to develop its armed services. All nations do that, and nations aspiring to exercise power and influence in the world, while also managing and accelerating their internal economic growth, do this more than others. How those armed services are used is what counts.
Rather than name calling, finger pointing or imputing motives, suggests Xinhua, China and the U.S. "should cherish their hard won bilateral ties, particularly the military relations, instead of blaming and smearing each other."
President Barack Obama's views are not dissimilar: "The U.S.-China relationship has not been without disagreement and difficulty. But the notion that we must be adversaries is not pre-destined." [IDN-InDepthNews - Sep 1, 2011]
Copyright © 2011 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters
*The writer has served as Sri Lanka's ambassador to Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and the USA. He was Chairman of the Commonwealth Select Committee on the media and development, Editor of the Ceylon 'Daily News' and the Ceylon 'Observer', and was for a time Features Editor and Foreign Affairs columnist of the Singapore 'Straits Times'. He is Global Editor of IDN-InDepthNews and a member of its editorial board as well as President of the Media Task Force of Global Cooperation Council.
