Rattling Sabers At China

Following on from yesterday's post about the US and Indian nuke deal, I have to mention Max Boot at the LA Times getting all conspiracy-theorist about China.

Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu of the Chinese People's Liberation Army caused quite a stir last week when he threatened to nuke "hundreds" of American cities if the U.S. dared to interfere with a Chinese attempt to conquer Taiwan.

This saber-rattling comes while China is building a lot of sabers. Although its defense budget, estimated to be as much as $90 billion, remains a fraction of the United States', it is enough to make China the world's third-biggest weapons buyer (behind Russia) and the biggest in Asia. Moreover, China's spending has been increasing rapidly, and it is investing in the kind of systems — especially missiles and submarines — needed to challenge U.S. naval power in the Pacific.

Well, yes, that's a lot of money - right up until you consider what "fraction" means. The US will spend more on weaponry and defense than every other nation on earth combined - a cool $500 billion. Oh, and the $90 billion Chinese spend is the high end estimate. The median estimate is $26 billion. The Japanese spend $44 billion a year and are showing signs of returning to a pre-WW2 rightwing hawkish foreign policy.

Max then really makes a bid for tinfoil headgear:

This isn't just loose talk. There are signs of this strategy being implemented. The anti-Japanese riots that swept China in April? That would be psychological warfare against a major Asian rival. The stage-managed protests in 1999, after the U.S. accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, fall into the same category.

The bid by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Co., to acquire Unocal? Resource warfare. Attempts by China's spy apparatus to infiltrate U.S. high-tech firms and defense contractors? Technological warfare. China siding against the U.S. in the U.N. Security Council over the invasion of Iraq? International law warfare. Gen. Zhu's threat to nuke the U.S.? Media warfare.

And so on. Once you know what to look for, the pieces fall into place with disturbing ease.

The hawks at the Pentagon and on the Right are talking up China as a threat to justify their multi-billion toys that are absolutely no use whatsoever for the war on terror. So when Rumsfeld recently asked "Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment?" the answer is kind of obvious who the Chinese think are threatening them.

It's the cold war spiral all over again and the only winners are the arms companies. Want to guess where all this administrations military chickenhawks will end up working after Bush goes back to the ranch?