Eye on China
January 9, 2012
Every year, the US spends a fortune on its military but this is set to change now that President Barack Obama has announced massive cuts in the defense budget.
Nonetheless, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the US would continue to field the world's strongest military, which has been tested almost to its limits by the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More and more, the focus will be placed on the Asia-Pacific region because of its economic and strategic significance.
"The US will continue to step in for its friends and allies,” says Oliver Thränert, a security expert at the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs. However, there has been a dramatic transformation in the security landscape since the end of the Cold War, he said. "The countries that are more likely to come into focus and receive US protection are in the Asia-Pacific realm."
Looking at China
Although it has not been spelt out, the new US military strategy is also aimed at China, which in recent years has expanded its navy and developed a modern submarine fleet. It is also now building its own aircraft carriers and stealth bombers, and is thought to have developed high-precision missiles with a range of 1,700 kilometers. Many of these missiles are stationed in the Taiwan Strait.
"There is great concern in Washington that China will take away the US' possibilities to go into the Strait with its own aircraft carriers" to defend the island state of Taiwan, which is among the US' closest allies in the region, says Thränert.
Other potential sources of conflict in the region are the simmering dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over oil and gas deposits in the East China Sea, as well as the increasingly heated controversy over the Spratly Island group that is thought to be rich in natural resources.
The US already has 75,000 troops in the region and has been boosting its military supplies to its allies over recent years. Martin Wagener from Trier University has suggested there is now a "ring of fire" around China that stretches from Japan and South Korea in the east to Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand, and could be activated in case of conflict.
Double strategy?
Officially, neither side has voiced an opinion on the plans of the other. But Thränert thinks both are following a double strategy, insisting on good relations while arming themselves for a conflict.
The Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, registered the new US strategy with concern last week. "Of course, we want to prevent a new Cold War with the United States, but at the same time, we must avoid giving up China's security presence in the neighboring region," it wrote.
"China must make the US realize that its rise can't be stopped and that it is best for the US to show friendliness towards China."
On Sunday, US Defense Secretary Panetta said that "America is the strongest military power and we intend to remain the strongest military power and nobody ought to mess with that."
Author: Thomas Latschan / act
Editor: Darren Mara