I heard on the news yesterday, that China is rapidly building up their military, what does this mean?

Question

They are third in the world with the highest amount of money for their military. Do you think its wise for the US to keep bringing in their products? Aren't we supporting this army? But if we stop buying their products, won't they pull in their markers?

Answer 1

They have been for a while now....

You are so right about our money supporting their military.....but we all love wal mart (not me)

We are no longer in a position to compete with China...we send over raw materials and they send back product that is why our trade deficit grows exponentially.....


don't forget they have the largest population....they have an endless supply of soldiers...
we are no longer the only game in town....India is becoming a huge consumer population...many countries are changing in their economic demogeraphic

Answer 2

China is forced to build up their military for reasons.

Population Control- The more a population is employed by the state, the more loyal it has to be. Also with a billion people and the form of government they've chosen it requires much more civil servants and military to keep people in line.

Border Control- China borders Iran, North Korea, Russia, Japan, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. All areas are either nuclear capable, overpopulated, under employed, war ravaged, ran by a psycho, and/or have militaries on par or better with theirs technologically and numerically.

Intra-region Control- The forementioned is about controlling your borders, but China is as big a landmass, as it is a people. Transportation is not very adequate or expedient, so military forces are needed to stay in areas, rather than most other countries where soldiers and equipment can be moved from place to place with ease or at least in a day, not days or weeks.

Extra-region control- Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, and soon may be North Korea all have in the recent past or currently gone through regime change, for better and worse, so to maintain security and prominence China needs to spread the military to all corners to cover unstable neighbors.

Tide Turning- China learned from the implosion of the USSR by attempting to outpace militarily and compete economically with the US and other nations. So China took the economic route, so they can compete militarily with not just the US, but Russia, India, Japan (via US), Taiwan (via US), Pakistan, and North Korea. However the taste of capitalism breeds the want for other freedoms, mostly from the educated and middle class, which are the life lines of capitalist economies, so they may have to "make them an offer they can't refuse" every once in a while.

"Star Wars" and "Peristroika" brought down the USSR, maybe the same is happening to China?

Answer 3

It means that we're about to see China emerge as the next world super power. America is China's largest creditor, thanks to George W. Bush's trillion-dollar folly in Iraq. All China has to do is revoke our "credit card" and we're then dead in the water. Without an ability to finance a military, the U.S. will find itself in the same situation as Russia is in today: they can't pay soldiers, so soldiers steal stuff and sell it on the black market, or abandon the military.
Once the U.S. is in the greatest economic depression it's ever experienced (within a few years after Bush leaves office) China will simply send its multi-million-man army over here and TAKE whatever it wants: military hardware; banks; real estate; natural resources; weapons of mass destruction; even our women if there's a strong demand for western females in the international sex-slave market.
China has always been a very patient country. While the Chinese sit back and watch Bush, the wealthy elitists, the squandering celebrities, the powerful and the politically influential rip this country to shreds, they know it's only a matter of time until they will be in a position of strength and superiority. -RKO- 06/12/07

Answer 4

China’s expanding military:

China claims they are modernizing the military, the west claims it is for imperialism and is destabilizing to the east and world.

China does not have a history of imperialism, nor do they have any military presence anywhere else in the world.

They also have little experience in modern warfare.

They have reduced their number of soldiers in recent years.

As far as world wide arms sales, they lag far behind the USA as we sell 36% of the world arms while China only 3% according to a congressional report in 2005.

Much of what China has in military hardware is outdated. Since their countries economy has improved remarkably they are able to afford much needed modernization.

One of the threats the west keeps laying out is the pending invasion of Taiwan, that’s never going to happen. China is smart enough to understand that an invasion would be counter productive to their future, even if it didn’t result in retaliation from the west. The political and economic fallout would be catastrophic.

If there is one thing that I have learned about China, they long ago realized they can’t go head to head in a fight against the west, and to do so would be destructive to their future.

China understands the only way to “win” is to do it economically. That there are far bigger fish to fry then global military adventures where the outcome is anyone’s guess.

At the very least, Vietnam should have taught us that lesson and Iraq most certainly.

China also understands its future far better then the USA. They plan while we seem to muddle along. Their plans are in the form of five year plans that are reviewed yearly and changed if need be.

I’ve often posed this question on the web, “what is the USA’s plan?” The answers I get, we have freedom and innovation, none of which answers the question.

Americans have no idea what our plans are for the future, but ask any Chinese and they have, at the very least, a rough idea what China wants to do. If they want to find out more they can go on the web or any number of government publications that outline their five year plans and see for themselves.

Then I point out that the few plans that we know of, no one knows what they are, especially our energy plan since that was held in secret by Vice President Cheney.

I’m very concerned with our lack of transparency and lack of foresight. We just seem to muddle along which worked very well for decades, now as the world and especially China slowly catches up to the USA, it’s in our best interests to look into our own crystal ball and make real obtainable transparent plans to secure our children’s future.

Unfortunately for the USA and much of the west, the plans will force us to come to realities that we don’t want to think of, such as our wasteful habits, over consumption in an increasingly competitive world, and our lack of being able to support a manufacturing base because of our high wages and benefits.

If we think of the world as staying static then we’ll miss the opportunities to secure our future. However if we really understand that most countries want to get to the “American Dream,” and are doing it, then we’ll stop arguing about insignificant things like flag burning, prayer in school and trying to shove anti abortion into our laws and other moral issues that we spend an inordinately amount of time wasting our legislative time on while ignoring our future.

I have heard it on more then one occasion that America is fretting away its future through its divisive and contemptuous politics.

As one man from India that’s a manager at a textile factory here in the city I live in the center of China put it, he loves Americans, but they aren’t worldly.

I’d say that statement is pretty accurate.

For the most part, when it comes to how the world works, the average American lives in an ideological vacuum that ultimately resulted in bringing a government system into an area of the world that has never seen that before. The result, is of course, failure.

--------

Signed, an ex pat from the USA living in China

Peace

Answer 5

China has been building up there military for years they have the largest foot army in the world but that doesn't mean they are getting ready for a war? Buy American it promotes jobs in the US instead of overseas.

Answer 6

China is one of the reasons I am against the War in Iraq. While China has been building a great military, losing very few personnel, and having a large amount of men to die for their country, the US is playing around losing men and resources almost daily. If China wanted to attack, what would we do?

Answer 7

It's quite the catch 22 isn't it? But consider this, would China willingly blow up the country that overwhelmingly provides consumers for its products. I doubt it.

Answer 8

Untill 200 Million Chinese Learn to Swim with weapons clenched in their teeth we are OK. HOWEVER the EU should be worried, the Chinese march very well..........

Answer 9

thats all they do is build up their army and make fake crap. what else is new?