With China
holding over
$700 billion in U.S. debt, a lot of caution has been applied to the diplomatic
relations between the United States
and China
by the Obama administration. However, gone relatively unnoticed has been the
expansion of the Chinese military.
On CNBC’s June 3 “Street Signs,” host Erin Burnett explained
the Chinese military would have a compact fighter jet rivaling the U.S. Air
Force’s F-22 in eight years. She aired and interview she conducted with U.S.
Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, which comes on the
heels of China snubbing Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Huntsman pointed
out the refusal of the Asian superpower to engage the United States
and said it was a “huge problem.”
“On the military issue generally, the lack of
transparency and the lack of dialogue and interaction is a huge problem for the
United States,” Huntsman said to CNBC. “And we need more
interaction. We need interaction at the junior officer level and we need
interaction at the senior officer level and we're getting very little of it
right now. And when you have no dialogue, when you have no interaction, you
have cultures that sort of build up on both sides. And they're built up based
upon suspicion and lack of trust.”
According to Burnett,
China contends
it is spending $40 billion to $50 billion on its military. However, Retired
Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis, a senior strategist for the Pentagon told CNBC it
was three or four times those estimates and offered a litany of things China is
procuring to bulk up its armed forces.
“Well, it’s three or four times that Erin
because the People's Liberation Army has all sorts of side businesses,” Maginnis
said. “And of course, the pay to the average soldier there is very low. But by in
large for the last 20 years, we've seen double-digit increases in their defense
budget and we've seen very tangible evidence of that. They have a new strategic
force. They have submarine-launched ballistic missiles. They have anti-access
weapons systems. In other words, they can stop our carriers now. And oh, by the
way, they are making their own carriers. I mean, their navy has been described
by our admiral in the Pacific as pretty dramatic increase in their
capabilities.”
Maginnis explained this shift in military spending is clear
evidence the Asian superpower is set to rival the United States militarily. He also
noted this was a shift in strategy – from defensive to an aggressive global
power.
“Erin, when you translate
it to tangible evidence on the ground, things just don't make sense,” Maginnis said.
“You know, 260 ships – we have 286. And they're ramping up their production of
submarines. As I mentioned a moment ago, they have four aircraft carriers
they've purchased from Australia
and the former Soviet Union which they're
refitting. They even intend to build their own aircraft carriers and right now,
they're training pilots for those aircraft carriers. This is not a defensive
navy. This is an aggressive overseas navy. In fact, they recently changed their
strategy which is called “the far-sea strategy.” In other words, it’s a global
strategy.”
As China
pushes ahead with their military, it could be interpreted to be “imperialistic,”
he added.
“Well, they are certainly very aggressive in the
marketplace, and because they are aggressive on the marketplace, they want to
have the capability to defend their interests across the globe,” Maginnis said.
“So how else do you come to the conclusion that they are, I think, somewhat
imperialistic.”
Last year, it was reported the
Chinese had developed a special “kill weapon” designed to destroy U.S. aircraft
carriers.
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