Chinese President Hu Jintao Inspecting the Troops
Readers of this blog will find there is little new to be discussed in the much anticipated China Military Policy White Paper [Full English Text here.] The paper was released 2 months late because military experts in Beijing wanted to take the time to add additional nationalist spin to give additional consideration to specific issues the military views as especially sensitive to national security. After-all, this is more than a policy paper, it is the Chinese military’s global declaration on what it (a real center of Chinese political power) sees as China’s foreign policy and security interests. No surprise, China has been growing increasingly concerned over America’s attempt to contain adjust to China’s growing naval power in the South China Sea.
I have wrote chronicled this issue for awhile when I was at the Foreign Policy Southeast Asia Blog. China became especially incensed last year when Secretary of State Clinton, acting as a proxy for the concerns of several Southeast Asian nations, injected America into China’s most sacred foreign policy issue, its territorial claims/integrity. This was a sign that the Obama Administration was firmly reengaging America in Pacific Affairs, after a long hiatus by its predecessor, the Bush Administration. China very much liked the Bush Administration, unlike much of the world, because George W. Bush was far more interested in chasing mythological weapons of mass destruction in Middle Eastern deserts and bombing random impoverished Jihadis held up in Central Asian caves. All of this kept America’s eyes “off the ball” in East Asia. The war on terrorism also gave China political cover to crack down on the Uighur population in its Xinjiang Province (East Turkestan) by labeling them radical Islamic terrorist, when in reality, the issue is more one of ethnic nationalism and self-determination.
After 8 years of America turning a blind eye to the region, China has to deal with a resurgent America, and it is not very happy about this. Scaring the heck of its neighbors last year, China did itself no favors. It simply resulted in many nations in the region, who were trying to walk a “middle path” with China, running under the the American security umbrella in fear of the leering Dragon. It also pushed Japan to reorient its own military toward a defensive position in relation to China, and even attracting South Korean cooperation to do so!
In the document, China also reiterated previous warnings of “fierce” regional competition and an increasingly “volatile” security picture in Asia.
“Major powers are stepping up the realignment of their security and military strategies, accelerating military reform and vigorously developing new … military technologies.”
A rough translation of this would be: ‘The U.S., Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and India are grouping with the weaker nations on our Southern periphery to prevent our rightful manifest destiny in the East and Southeast China Sea. We deserve our ‘sphere of influence’!’
