Experts Reject 'China Threat' Theory

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 01, 2002

Experts Reject 'China Threat' Theory

Chinese military experts have said that the real purpose of the "China threat" theory being propagated abroad is to hold back China's development. The highest goal of China's military strategy is to create a strategic environment of long-term peace and stability to ensure the country's smooth economic development and opening-up.

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Chinese military experts have said that the real purpose of the "China threat" theory being propagated abroad is to hold back China's development.

Luo Yuan, director of the Second Office of the Department of Strategic Studies under the Academy of Military Science of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), said: "Such people have ulterior motives and are trying to defame China and undermine China's relations with other countries."

However, Luo added that China needs to provide those who do not fully understand China with the chance to see how China desires world peace.

The highest goal of China's military strategy is to create a strategic environment of long-term peace and stability to ensure the country's smooth economic development and opening-up, said the expert.

The functions and tasks of China's military are clearly stipulated in the country's constitution, he said.

Article 29 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China says that "the tasks of the national armed forces are to strengthen national defence, resist aggression, defend the people's peaceful labour, participate in national reconstruction, and work hard to serve the people."

Luo rejected the report on Chinese military power that the Pentagon submitted to the US Congress in July, saying its accusations were groundless.

The report said that the modernization of the PLA is being undertaken as part of a broader strategic agenda - aimed at developing China into the dominant regional power.

The Pentagon report warned that China's growing clout also presented challenges to "other potential adversaries, such as the Philippines and Japan."

With regard to the question of whether or not a country is trying to achieve hegemony, Luo said that its foreign and domestic policies formed an important benchmark.

China's adherence to a defensive strategy is not mere symbolism, he said. Instead, it is substantial in terms of the level of demobilization, added Luo.

The reduction of the armed forces by 1 million personnel in the mid-1980s represented a quarter of the military population.

China further reduced army numbers by another 500,000 in the 1990s, which represented a sixth of the personnel. Such a level of demobilization is rarely seen today in the world, said Luo.

China pursues a peaceful foreign policy and has always developed relations with other countries on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, said Luo.

Military expert Yuan Zu, who declined to clarify which post he held, said that the modernization of China's national defence is entirely aimed at self-defence, to safeguard the achievements of socialist construction, and to safeguard national security and development.

China is a large country with long borders and coastlines, vast seas and airspace, and complicated geographical conditions, Yuan said.

"China needs to build a strong defence system that can effectively maintain our national security," he said.

"However, we do not seek a sphere of influence anywhere in the world, and we do not want to take an inch of land from another country," Yuan said.

"In the future, when our economy has developed, our country has become strong, and our national defence force has strengthened, we shall still resolutely not practise hegemonism and power politics. This is what China has promised."

Xia Jiren, an expert at the PLA Institute of Military Economics, said that China has always maintained an "active" and not a "passive" military defence - as demonstrated in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Xia said that China is prepared for war, and would aim to win.

"Although it is reactive rather than offensive, China's defence would be certain to subdue the enemy and win any war. The core of such active defence is to take preventive measures," he said.

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