An Asian arms race?
News that China plans to increase its military budget by 18% this year is not good news for peace and regional security. Of course the Chinese military budget of NZ$67 billion is still only 10% of the size of the US military budget at NZ$708 billion (excluding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) but it might still promote an arms race with Taiwan, India and Japan in particular. Money that sure could be used for better things than building weapons that will sit around doing nothing, unless they’re used to rip holes in people.
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March 6th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Russel - I agree with the sentiment in your last sentence. Unfortunately we can’t ignore the reality of China’s rise as a military power in our neighbourhood. Even though, as you suggest, China will be largely occupied with other great powers, its rise will pose a threat to our national interests, e.g., our access to foreign oil, secure shipping lanes for our exports, and our influence with South Pacific countries.
Rather than bemoan the situation NZ has to figure out fast how to devise effective security, defence, foreign and energy policy stances that safeguard us against China’s rise and its effects. Ridding ourselves of our fix on foreign oil would be an excellent initiative: peak oil plus competition and confrontation between the US and China over oil supplies (competition is already evident in the Middle East and Africa) will leave us very exposed.
http://kotare.typepad.com/thestrategist/2007/01/ending_our_oil_.html
http://kotare.typepad.com/thestrategist/2007/01/china_on_the_ri.html