International Law

Blame China for U.S. Military Spending

By Stan

and, of course, for the U.S. government’s budget deficit that China is, in part, funding.

No really.

Read this:

China’s increasingly advanced weaponry could undermine US military power in the Pacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.Echoing US intelligence guidelines released on Tuesday that warned of Beijing’s military modernization, Gates said US naval carriers and air bases in the Pacific faced new threats from China.

“In fact, when considering the military-modernization programs of countries like China, we should be concerned less with their potential ability to challenge the US symmetrically — fighter to fighter or ship to ship — and more with their ability to disrupt our freedom of movement and narrow our strategic options,” Gates said in a speech to the Air Force Association.

“Investments in cyber and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, and ballistic missiles could threaten America’s primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific — in particular our forward air bases and carrier strike groups,” Gates said in National Harbor, Maryland.

The new threats meant long-range military aircraft would take on greater importance as the latest weaponry would “degrade the effectiveness of short-range fighters and put more of a premium on being able to strike from over the horizon — whatever form that capability might take,” he said.

Defense analysts have warned that the US military will soon lose its dominance on the high seas, in space and in cyberspace as China and other emerging powers obtain sophisticated weaponry and missiles.

Nothing against Secretary Gates, but if the overarching policy imperative of the U.S. military is continued dominance in every aspect of warfare (aside from numbers of soldiers) everywhere in the world, then whenever China spends on a new weapons system, the U.S. must ratchet up its spending as well.

Funny how this military spending increases annually no matter whether wars end (e.g. Cold War) or wind down (e.g. Iraq). The military-industrial complex (a/k/a “rent seekers”) is good at what it does. For those who follow U.S. politics, there is currently a vocal minority of batshit crazy activists who are protesting, among other things, government spending. Although they rail against health care spending, welfare, bailouts, and stimulus spending, they never seem to get around to waste in the military budget. Interesting.

As I seem to be saying quite often lately, this is not going to end well, the big danger not being an armed conflict between the U.S. and China, but a bankrupt United States.

Well, bankruptcy is not exactly possible. How about a worsening of continuing deficits that began decades ago? Perhaps when the U.S. is beset with very high interest rates due to its inability to attract capital the military budget will be questioned?

It’s really depressing that demagoguery seems to be so good for business.

UPDATE: If you were able to read the above post without heaving up your guts, you may wish to read about what U.S. deficit/debt critics are saying about China. Warning: only follow the link if you can handle incredibly stupid things. Reading China Hearsay is a good start.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on September 19, 2009 (boomark / email).