Global threats and China’s ‘National Security’ ruse
Comrade Xi is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the PLA and it is not just for defense
Two words dominate China’s domestic and foreign policies. “National Security” runs deep in the ruling Communist Party psyche. It gives the authoritarian state legitimacy without the ballot box approval of the people.
It also elevates Supreme Leader Xi Jinping into a modern-day emperor and warlord with few checks and balances in Beijing’s opaque political system.
Since taking control of the Party in 2012, he has transformed the People’s Liberation Army and Navy into a force capable of turning the South China Sea into a no-go area.
His “no-limits” support for “best friend” Vladimir Putin has also propped up Russia’s illegal three-year war in Ukraine as Beijing and Moscow develop closer military ties. The PLA has even conducted exercises with Russian ally Belarus near the borders of NATO nations.
“What could China’s joint drills with such an actor be other than serving as a clear signal that it’s now a party to the war in Europe and has chosen whose side it is on,” Aliona Hlivco, of the Henry Jackson Society, posed that question in a commentary for The Daily Telegraph.
China is directing … its military budget to boost combat readiness.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Military power:
- China now has the world’s largest blue water surface fleet with 360 warships.
- It has also rolled out advanced hypersonic missiles and rapidly built up its nuclear arsenal.
- Last year, military spending ballooned to nearly US$300 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
- And that could be a conservative figure.
Delve deeper: “China is directing much of its growing military budget to boost the combat readiness of the [PLA],” Xiao Liang, a researcher for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said in the report.
Big picture: The PLA Navy has conducted massive drills encircling Taiwan. Beijing sees the democratic island as a renegade province and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.
Between the lines: “[Along] with the drills in Belarus, [China’s] Navy conducted maritime exercises in [the] Taiwan Strait. Earlier, Russia joined China in live-fire naval exercises in the South China Sea,” Hlivco, of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, wrote last week.
China Factor comment: In the past 24 hours, a report by the Pentagon has revealed that Beijing and Moscow are “collaborating in the Arctic.” Comrade Xi’s “National Security” policy appears to have no boundaries.