Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Comments on US intelligence missed Chinese military buildup

Our intelligence regarding China is abysmal. How do we deal with our failure to know more about China’s military affairs? Instead of improving our intelligence conduits we encourage China to tell us more. I am not even going there.

Japan, along with the United States, seek to "encourage China to improve transparency on its military affairs,' Ono said at a regional defense conference.

China has spent billions of dollars in recent years on weapons and technology to modernise its military, citing the need to face down threats from an independence-minded Taiwan among other needs.

China's military budget was 211.7 billion yuan ($A34 billion) last year - up 11 per cent from the previous year - though the US government says actual spending could be up to four times the official figure.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=50463

The amount of money China is spending is not of the ultimate importance. China, like almost every other country, is getting more bang for their yuan.
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While monetary expenditures are not the most important component in evaluating China asymmetrical warfare is.
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China is using asymmetrical warfare.

Most analysts make the grave error of comparing China’s armed forces with those of the United States on an item per item basis.

While the following excerpt was written using a comparative analysis of India and China, the same may be said of the United States and China.

A country’s military potential must be viewed against the backdrop of its military ethos, its determination to win, its ability to take and absorb ‘punishment’, and the ingenuity / innovativeness of its military leadership. In the last aspect in particular, the keen interest of Chinese strategists in ways of waging asymmetric warfare must be borne in mind. Damage far out of proportion to the simplistic military capabilities of a battle group can be achieved by using asymmetric techniques.

“In their book Unrestricted Warfare, [iii] the senior Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, have proposed various methods of non-military warfare including inter-alia hacking into websites, targeting financial institutions, engaging in terrorism, and using the media. In an interview with Zhongguo Qingnian Bao, Qiao stated that “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.”

The evolution of Chinese strategy can be traced back to its written history itself. The military strategy of China is identified with its pre-eminent military strategists like Sun Tzu, Sun Bin and others. However, later Chinese writings do not restrict this to a narrow military dimension only. They trace their strategic heritage to a very broad spectrum of ancient Chinese thinkers and scholars, starting from Confucius. The Chinese are a very traditional people. Their traditional roots are very deep and an integral part of their lore is the treatise on military strategy, The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Sun Tzu was a great proponent of asymmetrical war, as were other strategists like Sun Bin and Mao Zedong.

“China’s history of war is replete with examples of the successful use of asymmetrical war, where wisdom rather than valor was used to subdue the opposing forces. In particular one finds great use of D-3 viz. diversionary tactics, deception and disinformation.
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-Am