More Wrinkles in Our Relationship with China

It's always interesting to find out what our government isn't telling us. The fact that China has redirected its military posture as a result of our stupid war on Iraq has been a worry to the Pentagon, one which it can't tell the American public because it would further point up the stupidity of the cretin in chief's war. BBC isn't afraid to tell this story.

From the Emperor Ming to Mao Zedong, China's military prowess has been based on large land armies.

This year China is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Peoples' Liberation Army.

But its traditional strategic thinking is undergoing a huge shift, prompting fears in the United States that China might pose a threat to American diplomatic and military power with a naval arms race in the Pacific.

The capitulation of Sadam Hussein's army in the face of a hi-tech American onslaught in Desert Storm, with land, air and sea forces enabling a rapid US advance across large areas of land, gave a fresh impetus to military modernisation, according to Christian Lemiere, China expert at Jane's Country Risk.

"China had always relied upon the idea that if attacked it had large areas of land. It could fall back with these areas but if one power is able to take that and very quickly, it rapidly negates any advantage."
(snip)
Joseph Lin, a military affairs analyst with the Jamestown Foundation in Washington said this development has unnerved the Pentagon.
(snip)
Richard Lawless, Deputy Undersecretary of Defence for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs, believes it is the biggest shift in the region's power balance for more than 60 years.

And he is especially concerned with the development of new classes of submarine, including two of them nuclear: one an attack submarine class, the other a ballistic missile submarine. Since 2000 China's official military budget has leaped from $15bn to $45bn.

Some US estimates say these figures exclude a range of defence-related outlays such as arms purchases from abroad and put the true figure for China's annual military spending at up to $122bn.

Deterrence tactic

Professor Yan Xuetong, director of the International Studies Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and an analyst whose voice is heard by Chinese and American decision makers, said China needs submarines to deter the US Navy.

"Every major power when they increase the military budget will bring about this kind of suspicion," he added.(Emphasis added.)

I admit to an excess of schadenfreude when I point out that the 'unintended consequences' of the unilateral war on Iraq have given this executive branch one of the worst series of disasters in modern history. Of course, their headaches are very well earned, and the perils they have caused to the American people are beyond reprehensible.

Hopefully there is a military historian presently at work on the unparalleled lessons the White House has given us in the consequences of foolhardy wars by psychotic leaders of hideously unprepared nations, and this will provide one chapter of the many. Doubtless another will be the destruction of America's armed forces by leaders hearing voices that do not belong to those trained in armed warfare.