From JP Sottile at antiwar.org:
The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!
Well, actually, they were just parading around their capital, celebrating the defeat of the Japanese and end of their bloody part in World War II. But (cue some strangely ominous music plucked on a Chinese guitar) this was no Chinese New Year parade featuring dancing acrobats, red firecrackers and a dragon puppet.
No, this was China showing that it’d come a long way from a century of foreign domination at the hands of the British, through America’s “Open Door” policy and then by the brute force of Imperial Japan. Perhaps predictably, this show of national pride and strength caused a funny little freak-out among media establishment-types sitting at their desks halfway around the world.
Although President Xi announced a cut of 300,000 troops and assured the world of China’s peaceful intentions, the news media framed the accompanying military parade as a display of “power, not peace” (The Guardian), as a show of military “might” (NY Times), as the kickoff to a dangerous “modernization” of China’s military (WaPo) … and it was juxtaposed against a new report detailing the Chinese Navy’s unprecedented encroachment into the Bering Sea (WSJ).
First, it’s not like the US doesn’t sail around the world like it owns the seven seas. Uncle Sam has, depending upon your definition of an “aircraft carrier,” somewhere between ten and nineteen carriers. China has one, but last year TIME ran story declaring that the Chinese were “doubling” their fleet! That would make for a “fleet” of … two. On the other hand, Uncle Sam’s actual fleet dwarfs the rest of the world combined and the US is currently dropping $580 million to expand its naval base in the Persian Gulf. And it’s deploying drones to its long-standing base in Guam … with the intent of monitoring, perhaps, Fiji? Uh, nope.
Second, the freak-out seems comically lacking in circumspection given that the US is “activating” forces on Russia’s doorstep, trying to build a new base in Japan and is running a deadly, extrajudicial drone campaign over Africa and Asia (Pakistan is China’s neighbor, after all). And the US now has Marines permanently based in Australia, is negotiating greater access to the Philippines and is building the most technologically-advanced nuclear weapon ever made … under the guise of “modernization.”
Third, the US relentlessly touts its alliteratively-alluring “Pacific Pivot” strategy. Yes, US officials never miss an opportunity to talk about “pivoting” its wildly-popular Global War on Terror to a new effort in Asia. Just imagine if XI has announced that, instead of a cut of 300k troops, China was launching its “South American Sojourn” policy? Exactly.
Fourth, if the US had a similar military parade, it would take over four times as long as the 90-minute Chinese parade that has everyone freaking out about the growing power of China’s military. Why four times as long? Because the US “officially” spends over four times as much on defense as the dreaded, island-building Chinese – approximately $580 billion versus $129 billion – and it spends more than the next seven biggest defense spenders combined.
To continue reading: The Chinese Military Parade Freak-Out
