Globalization's Impact on the Chinese War Machine

摘要

In 2003, the leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC) began using the term Peaceful Rise to describe China's increasing economic power and international influence. This Peaceful Rise mantra coupled with the much anticipated 2008 Summer Olympics hopes to portray China as a peaceful nation ready to assume superpower status. Projected to have the world's largest economy by 2030, China is already the United State's largest trading partner. With an insatiable appetite for natural resources to sustain the economic growth China has diligently applied soft power elements to enter long-term agreements with key countries worldwide. Some range from dubious to outright terrorist states. The liberation of Kuwait became a wakeup call for the Chinese. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, U.S. led coalition forces had soundly defeated an Iraqi Military supplied with Chinese armament and tactics. China's take away from this defeat was to modernize its forces. Will external factors prompt China to engage this new military might, or will it continue its diplomatic course and grow its economy while the United States falls from grace in the world's eyes. This paper addresses these issues and provides recommendations for future U.S. policy to deal with an increasingly powerful and assertive China.