On Thursday, the US Defense Department said in the annual report that China continues to modernize and improve its military capabilities, and is also preparing for contingencies in the South and East China seas, where China has increasingly tense territorial disputes with its neighbors.
Barely bringing anything new compared with previous years’ reports, the 96-page report just trumped up the clichés of “China military threat theory”. It said Chinese military spending exceeded $145 billion last year as it advanced a program modernizing an arsenal of drones, warships, jets, missiles and cyber weapons, higher than the official figure of $119.5 billion.
It’s really hard for Uncle Sam to change the habit of lecturing others. Being the largest military power, the US spends far more than any other country, including China, on defense and security. The US’ defense budget soared from $287 billion in 2001 to $600.4 billion last year.
Despite being fully aware of the huge gap between the two militaries, the military big brother insisted on accusing China of flexing its muscles. The reason is clear: the US government still bares the arduous task of budget cuts as the debt ceiling crisis is lingering in the shadows.
Therefore the Pentagon and the arms dealers have to secure budget and arms orders with the excuse of another “simulated rival” after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars end. That’s why Uncle Sam meddles in the waters of the East and South China seas under the banner of “navigation freedom”, even though it’s not a disputed party. It needs to create and maintain a certain degree of tension in the region, which is not only part of its strategy to keep a rising China in check, but also to guarantee interests of US big arms dealers.
Early this year, saying there is no longer need for a force to fight two wars, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed shrinking the US military’s size down to pre-World War II levels to reduce spending without losing its worldwide presence. But the budget still vowed to secure money for crucial programs such as cyber warfare, a key to modern warfare.
All of these made it even more ridiculous when the annual Pentagon report renewed warnings about China’s “offensive cyber capabilities”, days after the US “charged” five Chinese military officers of cyber intrusion. The US’ hypocrisy was fully exposed when it tried to justify its global surveillance on one hand and condemn others’ cyber hacking as illegal on the other.
Similarly on the drone programs, the US may steal a horse while China may not look over a hedge. The Pentagon report highlighted the test of PLA’s new stealth drone Lijian in November last year, after four years in development. Previously the Pentagon had cautioned China’s push "combines unlimited resources with technological awareness that might allow China to match or even outpace US spending on unmanned systems in the future."
However, a well-known truth is that while China is still testing its drone technology, the US has already advanced in applying it to mass killing.
Two international human rights groups have alleged the US, the long-time self-proclaimed guard of human rights, killed at least 57 civilians with unmanned aircraft in Yemen between September 2012 and June 2013, and conducted drone strikes in Pakistan, in which a 68-year-old grandmother was hit while farming with her grandchildren.
In some-US led countries’ eyes, the Chinese military, no matter weak or strong, will hardly do things right. After the Chinese navy dispatched fleets in search of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, some Western media outlets mocked the Chinese military’s vulnerability revealed in the operation.
In contrast to the US’ network of full bases in Japan, Guam and Diego Garcia, the Chinese navy’s most significant southernmost base remains on Hainan Island. Moreover, the US is far more advanced in aircraft, warships and their detection equipment.
But now the Pentagon report once again expresses worries about China’s growing “regional power of projections” even though the US has set up more than 5,000 military bases across the global.
Just as the report admitted, “the US–China relationship has elements of both cooperation and competition. A new model of military-to-military relations seeks to manage competition through sustained and substantive dialogue and a commitment to risk reduction…”
If the Pentagon truly cherished the new model of bilateral military ties, it could have saved $89,000 by cancelling the report. The Pentagon’s annual PLA reports will only show the US’s hypocrisy, and hardly pull the Chinese military out of its development track.
