‘The world today is undergoing unprecedented changes, and China is at a critical stage of reform and development. In their endeavor to realize the Chinese Dream of great national rejuvenation, the Chinese people aspire to join hands with the rest of the world to maintain peace, pursue development and share prosperity’. This is part of the preface text of the new Chinese Security Strategy is made public after it passed at the 15th Meeting of the 12th National People’s Congress Standing Committee on 1 July 2015. With this statement it show that in the near future a more proactive foreign posture might appear. China uses in the text a holistic approach to safeguard it’s national interests. Being holistic means that, like in other sovereign states, China wants to protect its vital interests and uses a bottom-line approach in defining when and how all the country’s means to defend its interests are being activated. It envisions that the military play a larger role in the future. And the military are expected to create, even harder then already, a favorable strategic posture for the country. They are also expected to plan and prepare for prevention, deterrence, and war fighting and ‘farsighted’ planning and management to create a favorable posture and handle crisis comprehensively.
Sun Jiango, the PLA deputy Chief of the General Staff stated that ‘without struggle, it will be impossible for the United States to respect our core interests’. By introducing the holistic strategy, China makes a statement that it will use all available means, not necessarily military, to ensure that it’s role is more prominent than before. With this white paper, it again gives a signal of China’s progressive posture in achieving it’s strategic aims that could involve military means.
China also makes clear, by fully integrating it in the security strategy, how important her active security of supply of national resources and energy policy is (see also my columns of 8 October 2012 and 30 October 2012). And as always, the statements are well reasoned and from a rational point of view understandable. Although Western states and China’s Asian neighbor’s will not appreciate it.
For a translation of the text of the white paper click here.