Is China A Military Threat Or Another Paper Tiger
Reprint from spacewar.com
In terms of manpower, China has 2.25 million troops, 800,000 reserves and nearly 4 million paramilitary forces, a total of more than 7 million. Compare that to the United States, which has 1.4 million active military personnel, 858,500 reserves and 53,000 paramilitary, a total of 2.3 million personnel. Photo courtesy AFP.NATO wants to end tensions with China, establish military ties
Beijing (AFP) May 24 - NATO wants to finally end tensions arising from its deadly 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and establish ties with China, a general with the alliance said in comments published here Thursday. NATO Military Commission chairman General Ray Henault said the organisation was ready and willing to set up direct "military-to-military" relations with China, the official Xinhua news agency reported. "NATO is open to develop relations with China whenever there is (the) opportunity," Henault said, according to Xinhua, following an exclusive interview with him on the USS Roosevelt missile destroyer in Italy.
Xinhua said Henault had referred in the interview to NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade eight years ago, which killed three Chinese journalists. The incident, which NATO insisted was an accident, sent relations between the two sides plummeting to their lowest point. China initially recalled its ambassador from Washington over the strike. The US-led forces, which were trying to end Serbian violence against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, said the strike occurred because of an outdated map provided by the CIA.
The United States and NATO apologised for the incident. China has never publicly accepted their explanation that the bombing was a mistake. "NATO wants to shake off the embassy-bombing shadow and is open to develop relations with China," Xinhua cited Henault as saying. China reacted warmly to the comments, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying dialogue between the two sides had picked up pace recently and a deepening of ties was a possibility.
"China has resumed dialogue in recent years with NATO at various levels..," Jiang told reporters. "Under the current new international circumstances, China stays ready to maintain and develop contacts with NATO on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and to reinforce our exchanges. "This is conducive to the reinforcement of our mutual knowledge and this is to the benefit (of) the world and regional peace and stability."
by Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Washington (UPI) May 24, 2007
How much of a threat is China's growing military to the security of the United States? China's investment in its military, from conventional weapons to cybersystems, along with its lack of openness regarding its intent, raises the possibility of a miscalculation that could spark a conflict with the United States, according to U.S. security policy experts.
So too could the perennial increases in its military spending. According to GlobalSecurity.org, China's official defense budget for 2000 was approximately $14.6 billion. It was increased the following year by 17.7 percent.
In 2001 China acknowledged its defense budget to be more than $17 billion, a figure higher than the defense budgets of India, Taiwan and South Korea combined. In 2002 China again increased military spending by 17.6 percent, or $3 billion, bringing the reported total to $20 billion.
The following year China once more increased military spending to $22 billion. Again, that figure grew by another 11.6 percent in 2004 to $2.6 billion. And in 2005 China raised its military budget another 12.6 percent, to $29.9 billion.
For the current year China's military expenditure is expected to hover around $44.94 billion. That's a jump of some $30 billion in just seven years.
In terms of manpower, China has 2.25 million troops, 800,000 reserves and nearly 4 million paramilitary forces, a total of more than 7 million. Compare that to the United States, which has 1.4 million active military personnel, 858,500 reserves and 53,000 paramilitary, a total of 2.3 million personnel.
But despite having the world's largest military force, China's army is smaller per capita than those of many countries, including the United States. Furthermore, some experts see the very size of the Chinese army as a hindrance to modernization. According to Foreign Policy in Focus, China cannot afford adequate pay, training or modern weapons for most of its forces. China will not be able to develop modern military forces unless it either greatly increases military spending (which seems unlikely) or drastically cuts the size of its forces.
With the number of troops presently in uniform, China can defend its territory, but its capacity for external aggression is minimal.
Yet Americans do not seem to be too preoccupied by China's military strength and expenditure, according to a new UPI-Zogby International poll. The poll, which has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points, was carried out May 16-18 and had 5,141 U.S. residents as respondents.
Only 7.2 percent of Americans believe China represents a military threat to the United States, and even fewer -- 2.3 percent -- believe the issue of Taiwan could strain relations with China. China's occupation of Tibet ranked a meager 2 percent.
As for President George W. Bush's handling of relations with China, 40.9 percent give him "poor" marks, 23.2 percent rate him "fair," 21.1 percent "good," and 4.3 percent give him an "excellent" rating.
More than half of those polled -- 53.7 percent -- said they have a somewhat favorable opinion of the Chinese people, but only 4.8 percent have similar feelings for the Chinese government.
When asked whether China is a threat to U.S. national security, an economic threat to the United States or an economic partner and an ally, 21.7 percent of respondents said China is a threat to national security, 59.8 percent said China was more of an economic threat to the United States, and 5.7 percent believe China to be an economic partner and an ally.
Regarding China's continuing military buildup, 29.7 percent said they were "very concerned" while 2.9 percent showed "no concern at all." As far as China's threat to U.S. national security, 18.7 percent believe the communist country poses "a great threat," while a minority -- 3.7 percent -- see "no threat at all from China."
Although Taiwan barely registered as an issue of contention between the two nuclear powers, about half of the nearly 6,000 Americans polled -- 53.5 percent -- believe the United States has a responsibility to defend Taiwan, should it be attacked by China, while 36 percent disagree. About 45 percent of Americans believe China is a threat to stability in East Asia, and 63.8 percent fear China's space program.
Regarding the war on terror, only a tiny minority -- 1.8 percent -- of Americans believe China is a valid partner in the global war on terror; 18.2 percent "somewhat agree," but the majority, 63.6 percent, disagree.
