Jesse Miller makes the point that China is a rapidly growing threat to world security. The following is not to counter his agument so much as it is to fill in the blanks. Although China is certainly a world power, it is not one on the scale of the United States. If China poses a threat to world security then what does the military activitiy of the U.S. pose? Neither country has a clean record as far as militarism or human rights but the U.S. is unique in its extension of itself as a power across the globe. It is possible to see the 'China threat' as a response to American militarism wordwide.

The following pieces of information are taken from links available on this page of GlobalSpin. They are elaborated on in greater detail in those documents on those sites.

China may have the world's largest army but it is unlikely to walk over to San Francisco and Los Angeles. There's a large body of water in the way.

The China-U.S. trade could be considered an argument against ratchetting up the aggressive posture. But there is the internal U.S. conflict between the Bush people and the China Lobby. One argument I haven't heard is that this aggressive stance of the Bush Administration could be a form of leverage. We run a huge trade deficit with China. Even if the transnationals don't care, it still poses problems for the U.S. government.

The top ten companies who receive Department of Defense contracts did $50 billion worth of business with the DOD in FY 2000. This figure does not include the next 90 companies. ( See Doc. 1 from the Federation of American Scientists)

In 1994 China, Vietnam and North Korea spent $58.7 billion on defense. The pro-western group, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand spent $89.5 billion, one and a half times as much. Also the pro-China group was in the decline in the years from 1986-1994. (Se doc. 2 from the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace) North Korea's military budget is half that of South Korea. (See Doc. 3 from APCJP) China is surrounded by US supplied, pro-Western armies and weaponry, i.e.:

-S. Korea has a US military presence of 37,000 troops in over 120 bases. The U.S. military commander is also formally in command of the Republic of Korea Army. (See Doc. 4 from APCJP)
-Okinawa has a US military presence of 30,000 troops.
-Japan and the US have signed a Theater Missile Defense agreement. (Doc. 5 from APCJP)
-New arms sales to Taiwan include offensive weapons. Bush has lifted the requirement for an annual review, whereby he leaves it to his own discretion to arm Taiwan whenever he chooses. The latest sales of arms to Taiwan is the largest ever and in violation of an earlier treaty with China. (See Doc. 6 from the Straits Times )
The U.S. dominates the economies of the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. economy is 75% of the total economies of the region with Brazil a distant second (6.7%) and Canada at 5.3%. (See Doc. 7 from The Asia Times' Roving Eye )
The U.S. is the world's largest arms supplier. From 1995- 1999 the US supplied almost as many weapons as the rest of the world combined. Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey (the last two being human rights violators) are the major recipients. Israel the largest recipient of foreign aid, which stands at $4 billion annually, is also cut in on weapons development progrmas with the DOD. Israel is the most militarized state in the Middle East and is also a human rights violator. ( See Doc. 8 from the Peace Movement Aotearea )
The latest sale to Taiwan is the largest ever, $7 billion, and offensive weapons are included. ( See Doc. 6 from The Straits Times )
Eighty-nine per cent (89%) of the US arms transfer to non-industrialized countries from 1991-1999 went to non-democratic regimes. ( See Doc. 9 from APCJP )
The U.S. conducts military training exercises throughout Asia in Indonesia ( human rights violator), Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. In the Middle East the U.S. supplies Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, all human rights violators. The U.S. teaches counter-insurgency techniques, psychological warfare, internal defense tactics, sniper skills, and military operations in urban areas. ( See Doc. 9 from APCJP )

The U.S. miliary budget was $752,620,000 in FY 2000. the figure includes payments to Veterans, not included in most calculations. this budget dwarfs that of the rest of the planet. It is 3X that of the combined budgets of the countries the U.S. considers enemies:

China
Russia
Iran
Iraq
Syria
North Korea Cuba ( See Doc. 8 from Peace Movement Aotearea )

China will boost its budget 17% this year, that is true, but its $7 billion military budget is minute compared to the U.S $340 billion ( the figure that does not include Veterans payments). ( See Doc. 10 from Foreign Policy in Focus )

Lockheed-Martin profits for 1999 were $3.8 billion
Boeing " " " $2.6 billion
Raytheon " " " $977 million
American taxpayers financed the roduction of these three companies as follows:

Lockheed-Martin $30,734,000,000
Boeing $28,072,000,000
Raytheon $ 5,488,000,000 ( See Doc. 10 from Peace Movement Aotearea )

The U.S. has more than 800 military installations around the world. ( See Collateral Damage, Last week's Globalspin)

The Sudan, Colombia, and Panama are all counties that the U.S. has damaged in some way. In the Sudan, a country suffering from civil war and extreme levels of starvation, we bombed the only pharmaceutical plant, the al-Shifa plant in 1998. ( See Doc.s 12 and 12 from the Institute of Public Accuracy )

We also bombed Panama under the senior Bush, and killed at least 400 people, estimates run up to the thousands. ( See Doc. 13 from the Resource Center of the Americas )

And Colombia was 'given' $1.3 billion in military aid by the departing Clinton Administration. Waiving aside abundant evidence of human rights violations on the part of the military and the para-militaries that, it has become increasingly obvious, they supply, the U.S. maintains its military 'support' of that country. Colombia has seen the displacement of one million people and the murder of close to a quarter million more in the ever increasingly spiral of violence that has possessed it for the last ten years. Is it any wonder that the Chinese can make inroads in societies like these for whom the word American connotes violence, a violence that most members of these societies have experienced personally?