A Perspective from Japan
China's Growing Military Might: What's It Really For?
Cultural News, April 2008
By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst
Translated by Alan Gleason
China has increased its military budget by a double-digit percentage every year for the past twenty years in a row. At the 11th National People's Congress that opened on March 5 in Beijing, the Chinese government announced that the country's defense budget for fiscal 2008 would rise by 17.6 percent to 417.8 billion yuan (US$58.8 billion). Last year China's defense outlays exceeded Japan's (4.8 trillion yen, or US$48 billion) for the first time, causing a stir in Japan and elsewhere.
The U.S. Department of Defense claims that China's actual military expenses run to two or three times the official figure. That is because China does not include weapons purchases from foreign countries in its defense budget, while the cost of military exercises is allocated to individual regional governments.
These figures have prompted some governments and pundits to warn that China is seeking to achieve parity with U.S. armed forces and become one of the world's military superpowers.
However, China has a very long way to go to acquire anything like the hi-tech weaponry and communications and information hardware boasted by the U.S. forces. The gap between the two countries' total military strength remains formidable, if not astronomical.
Why, then, is China pouring so much money into its military now? The answer can be found in the "Great Wall Syndrome." Since ancient times the Middle Kingdom has sought to protect its vast perimeter from foreign invaders by building a network of fortifications along its northern and western frontiers. The Great Wall of China thus represents a defense strategy that has been in place for centuries.
Therein lies a big difference between China's military priorities and America's. The latter's armed forces are essentially an expeditionary force whose mission is to fight wars outside the United States. But the mission of the Chinese military has always been to protect the homeland against invasion from without. The "wall" today is more virtual than physical, but the concept is the same: to prevent the penetration of foreign political influence, economic systems, cultural traditions, even transportation systems.
Since the 1949 Revolution, the Chinese Army has been called the People's Liberation Army. But when the army turned its guns on Chinese citizens during the Tiananmen Incident of 1989, its image as a "people's army" was effectively destroyed. Today's army seeks to regain its prestige with the populace by serving as a "Great Wall" against foreign encroachment, whether by land or by sea.
Such an undertaking for such a vast territory requires a huge budget. But China's military capacity for expeditionary adventures remains extremely low. Without recognizing the distinctive nature of the country's priorities, one cannot understand what is really going on with Chinese armed forces today. It is important to realize that part of China's motivation is to avoid the debacle suffered by the Soviet Union when it attempted to go head to head with the U.S. in military outlays in the 1980s.
Motoaki Kamiura is a Tokyo-based military analyst. When the world is in crisis, he appears frequently on national television programs.
Alan Gleason is an editor, writer, and Japanese-English translator. He lives in Tokyo.
A Perspective from Japan
China's Growing Military Might: What's It Really For?
Cultural News, April 2008
By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst
Translated by Alan Gleason
China has increased its military budget by a double-digit percentage every year for the past twenty years in a row. At the 11th National People's Congress that opened on March 5 in Beijing, the Chinese government announced that the country's defense budget for fiscal 2008 would rise by 17.6 percent to 417.8 billion yuan (US$58.8 billion). Last year China's defense outlays exceeded Japan's (4.8 trillion yen, or US$48 billion) for the first time, causing a stir in Japan and elsewhere.
The U.S. Department of Defense claims that China's actual military expenses run to two or three times the official figure. That is because China does not include weapons purchases from foreign countries in its defense budget, while the cost of military exercises is allocated to individual regional governments.
These figures have prompted some governments and pundits to warn that China is seeking to achieve parity with U.S. armed forces and become one of the world's military superpowers.
However, China has a very long way to go to acquire anything like the hi-tech weaponry and communications and information hardware boasted by the U.S. forces. The gap between the two countries' total military strength remains formidable, if not astronomical.
Why, then, is China pouring so much money into its military now? The answer can be found in the "Great Wall Syndrome." Since ancient times the Middle Kingdom has sought to protect its vast perimeter from foreign invaders by building a network of fortifications along its northern and western frontiers. The Great Wall of China thus represents a defense strategy that has been in place for centuries.
Therein lies a big difference between China's military priorities and America's. The latter's armed forces are essentially an expeditionary force whose mission is to fight wars outside the United States. But the mission of the Chinese military has always been to protect the homeland against invasion from without. The "wall" today is more virtual than physical, but the concept is the same: to prevent the penetration of foreign political influence, economic systems, cultural traditions, even transportation systems.
Since the 1949 Revolution, the Chinese Army has been called the People's Liberation Army. But when the army turned its guns on Chinese citizens during the Tiananmen Incident of 1989, its image as a "people's army" was effectively destroyed. Today's army seeks to regain its prestige with the populace by serving as a "Great Wall" against foreign encroachment, whether by land or by sea.
Such an undertaking for such a vast territory requires a huge budget. But China's military capacity for expeditionary adventures remains extremely low. Without recognizing the distinctive nature of the country's priorities, one cannot understand what is really going on with Chinese armed forces today. It is important to realize that part of China's motivation is to avoid the debacle suffered by the Soviet Union when it attempted to go head to head with the U.S. in military outlays in the 1980s.
Motoaki Kamiura is a Tokyo-based military analyst. When the world is in crisis, he appears frequently on national television programs.
Alan Gleason is an editor, writer, and Japanese-English translator. He lives in Tokyo.