China's military buildup must be checked

Robert Henderson gives an excellent overview of the military ambitions of Communist China and weighs in the consequences. Hu Jintao’s “harmonious society” slogan is only words--the cold war is real. This kind of environment is less than ideal for the 2008 Olympics and goes against the Olympic Charter—we need to voice our concerns to the IOC that this is not acceptable.

Taiwan Journal: Excerpt - The Chinese defense budget has been growing at a double-digit growth rate in recent years, and the 2006 budget for defense was almost a 15-percent increase over the previous year. China's modernization of the PLA has led to a growing demand for new high-tech weapons systems, purchases of which have almost quadrupled between 1999 and 2005, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Moreover, the U.S. Pentagon has reported that these foreign weapons purchases are funded separately from the official defense budget....

Europe implemented its prohibition on arms sales to China in June 1989 as a response to the Tiananmen Massacre, when government forces slaughtered thousands of peaceful protesters calling for democracy in China, and the subsequent crackdown on human rights in that country. More recently, there has been international concern over China's rapid military buildup and the passage in March 2005 of its Anti-Secession Law, as well as the adverse impact these measures have had on regional stability….

Other North American critics of lifting the arms embargo are concerned about Beijing's widespread human rights abuses, and point to alleged acts of physical cruelty against Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Chinese government recently enacted restrictive regulations forcing foreign news agencies that distribute news reports to Chinese media outlets to censor their reports on China's economy and society. Both American and E.U. critics have expressed strong opposition to these new censorship rules as a further example of the human rights abuses that are rampant on the mainland…

In recent years, Chinese leaders such as Premier Wen Jiabao have repeatedly described the E.U. weapons embargo as "a relic of the Cold War" and "political discrimination" while suggesting that its abolition would open the way for a more stable political environment between China and Europe. Leading up to Wen's attendance at the summit in Helsinki, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, Li Ruiyu, reiterated these charges and denounced the arms ban as "discriminatory."…

At the same time, the Pentagon, in its 2006 annual report to the U.S. Congress on China's military power, noted that the rapid military buildup of its PLA forces in the near term appeared to be focused on preparing for contingencies for action in the Taiwan Strait, including ways of dealing with U.S. intervention. In addition, the PLA military buildup could also be used elsewhere in the region, such as to deal with low-level conflicts over resources and territory like the offshore oil deposits and East China Sea islands claimed by China, Japan and Taiwan. (more)