Alarm bells sound over China's
‘fascist society'; Economic clout, perceived militarism sparking fear in
Washington and Tokyo
BEIJING -- A sudden drumbeat of panicky warnings about China's growing military and economic power is sparking fears that the United States and Japan could soon be entangled in conflict with the world's most populous nation.
The ominous warnings have been everywhere in the American and Japanese media in recent weeks, ringing alarm bells over China's rapid military modernization and its voracious appetite for Western corporations.
Pentagon officials have been quoted anonymously as saying that China is a “fascist state” of Nazi proportions. One major U.S. magazine, The Atlantic, has published a cover story on how the United States would wage a war with China. Another magazine, The New Republic, has suggested that China could be “the first nation since the fall of the Soviet Union that could seriously challenge the United States for control of the international system.” Both the United States and Japan are preparing new official defence papers that will focus largely on the Chinese threat. Both papers have been leaked to sympathetic media, and the leaks portray China as a potentially belligerent superpower with a frightening arsenal of missiles and high-tech weaponry.
The Japanese defence paper is warning that China has shifted to “aggressive” military strategies — including an expansion of its naval activities — that must be carefully watched, according to a report this week in the Yomiuri Shimbun, an influential Japanese newspaper.
In a major speech in Singapore last month, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave a preview of the Pentagon defence paper. He sharply criticized the Chinese military buildup, predicting that China's advanced new missiles could hit targets around the world.
“Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment?” he said. “Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?”
China's economic muscle is equally alarming to both countries. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 398-15 to oppose a Chinese takeover of Unocal, the California-based oil giant. The resolution said the takeover bid by CNOOC Ltd., the state-owned Chinese oil company, would “threaten to impair the national security of the United States.”
A white paper by the Japanese trade ministry this month, meanwhile, is warning of the growing risks of investment in the Chinese market. It suggests that Japanese investors should shift production to Southeastern Asia instead.
Beijing is expressing outrage at the foreign criticism. Yesterday it lashed out at Japan, accusing it of adding a “chill” to the already frosty relationship between the two Asian neighbours.
“The two white papers smack of all-out hostility on the part of Japan, which is counterproductive,” the state-owned China Daily newspaper said in an editorial. “Its attitude toward China is an unease over its neighbour's progress.” The comments by Mr. Rumsfeld have provoked similar anger from Beijing.
“In trumpeting the ‘China threat theory' abroad, Rumsfeld's intention is to evoke doubts and worries among China's neighbouring countries, so as to drive a wedge in the relations between China and the East Asian neighbours,” said the People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, in a front-page article last month.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, rejected the American criticism of China's military spending. The annual U.S. military budget, he said, is 77 times bigger than the Chinese military budget in per capita terms.
But with no hint of any slowdown in China's military growth, and with CNOOC still pushing ahead relentlessly in its pursuit of Unocal, the controversy over China's intentions is bound to continue. Much of the U.S. commentary is painting China as a potential successor to the Soviet Union.
“China's emergence as a growing power could threaten America's role as the primary guarantor of stability in Asia,” a lengthy article in The New Republic concluded last week.
The Washington Times, a right-wing daily with close links to the Pentagon, predicted that China could be ready to attack Taiwan within two years. “We may be seeing in China the first true fascist society on the model of Nazi Germany, where you have this incredible resource base in a commercial economy with strong nationalism, which the military was able to reach into and ramp up incredible production,” it quoted a senior U.S. defence official as saying.
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