B.

Sanjeewa Tharanga Kariyawasam

Dip/IX/D/23

A RESEARCH PAPER ON CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY ON DEFENCE & STARTEGY

Topic-2 Chinas Foreign Policy
Diploma course in Diplomacy and World Affairs (IX) 2013 Module II assignment

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. The foreign policy of Peoples Republic of China in brief 3. Defence and strategic policy of China as an integral part of Foreign policy a. Importance of Defence policy b. Defence policy implementation for in house matters c. Defence policy with immediate neighbours d. Defence policy towards surrounding regional system e. Chinese security policy towards the world beyond Asia 4. Bibliography 1 2 3 4 7 8 9 11 13

1) Introduction The world is becoming a global village with the boosting and dynamic technology and the international affairs leaving no country alone. Therefore, international role of a country is a vital point of protecting its sovereignty. Foreign policy is the set of guidelines which control the international role of a country because it represents the way a country maintain its relationship other countries. In this research paper, the foreign policy of Peoples Republic of China is discussed by focusing on defence and strategic policy of China. China is a permanent Security Council member and the biggest emerging super power of the world in this century. It is said by various economic and defence analysists that sooner rather than later China will exceed the USA in all capabilities. However, China is playing a prominent role even in the current context in the international arena. In nature, China has adopted defensive defence policy rather than offensive policy on Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The objective of this research paper is to analyze the characteristics of defence policy and the strategy of China and the tendency of policy change. It is witnessed that as much as the China is acquiring the power of international influence their interest is growing beyond their immediate territorial concerns in form of counter-piracy, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief and regional military operations, leaving some international military challenges due to their non-transparent military modernization . Therefore, it is interesting and important to discuss the defence policy and strategy of China going through vast store of literature.

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2) The Foreign Policy of Peoples Republic of China in brief. Chinas Foreign policy is a set of various polices adopted by the government of China in order to address defence, social, cultural, political and economic interests which they believe to protect and develop. In the chinas foreign policy, observable inherent tenets and implications are portrayed with a significant emphasise. Those tenets are revealed in terms of Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, New Security Concept, Peaceful Rise/ Peaceful Development, Period of Strategic Opportunity and Harmonious World in their foreign policy1 with higher prominence. Since 1980s, Chinas foreign policy was formed on the doctrine of independent foreign policy of peace according to Deng Xiaoping (politician and reformist leader of the Communist Party of China) .Hu Jintao, (October 15, 2007), former leader of China, again proclaimed their commitment to peaceful developments and pursue independent foreign policy ensuring strategy for the win-win outcomes with counterparts. Their main goals of foreign policy are to preserve Chinas independence, political stability, sovereignty, national interests and territorial integrity and to create a favourable international environment for Chinas development reform and modernization. Since 1978, achievements of China is remarkable so far with a great leap forward, as all can observe. The internal situation of the country is rather controversial than it appears due to the limitations such as freedom of speak, elitism, party governance, corruption, abuse of human rights and other arbitrary actions which are not accepted in democratic backgrounds taken by the Chinese

C. Fred Bergsten .et al. (2008), Chinas rise: Challenges and Opportunities.

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government.2 Thus, from the beginning, the Chinese foreign polices evolved on bases of those experiences and that is why they strictly adhere to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.3 3) Defence and strategic policy of China as an integral part of Foreign policy Defence policy of a country is framework within which a country identifies threats and aggression of hostility based on intelligence analysis and defines the limits of national security, defence alliances, combat readiness, military technology and mobilizing and organizing of national forces. Defence policy identifies threats of hostility and aggression based on intelligence analysis, and defines military scope of national security, defence alliances, combat readiness, and military organisation of national forces and their use of military technology. In addition to that the national defence policy defines the national defence strategy4. The strategic policy provide the countries strategic posture with military doctrines on how and when to deploy national forces against possible threats against its territory, environment, economy and national interests along with options of dealing such threats. The defence strategy and military doctrine are developed through strategic policy and capability development processes. My intention to brief and analyse the current defence policy and strategic policy of China. Defence and strategic policy is an important part of foreign policy in Chinese foreign policy. China was never a super power in history and still they feel how they suffer from marginalization and humiliation. Since after the Opium War in 1840, the feudalism and colonisation which prevailed in the country gradually fade off. Once Japan invaded China in 1932 leaving the country incapacity to defend against such a smaller country less than twenty in times. Because of those impacts, they did not have superpower mentality earlier but reactive thinking and lesser attention to global affairs in

Feldstein, M., (2012) China's Biggest Problems Are Political, Not Economic. The Wall Street Journal.

This derived from Indian Panchsheel (from Sanskrit, panch:five, sheel:virtues), are a set of principles to govern relations between states. Basically, this was codified in the agreement between India and China in 1954.Later on even other countries. This is also considered as five principles of basis of non-alignment movement. 4 Defence policy. (2013, March 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:41, September 1, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defence_policy&oldid=542941065

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the past. Communist leaders adopted superpower mentality after the relinquishment of victimised mentality. The chines culture is strategic in nature, even before 2500 years, they had strategic perspectives, the book of Art of War written Chinese general Sun Tzu evidenced how they were proficient in strategic science in military a long time ago and it is still used by even western military academies.5 Hence, their defence policies also got the influence of their culture, tradition, political and social system to adopt such defensive policy. The defence policy is formulated on four cornerstones, those are in house, in immediate neighbour, in surrounding regional system and world beyond the Asia. The rise of China in economic and military power in Asian region has a significant influence for regional military and economic power. Shifting from bipolar system to multipolar system was inevitable and China is also playing dominant role in the current system in this period. The geopolitics of China which are very important in the region due to its size, population, natural resource and its topography. In the current context globalization, information availability, are carrying the world into complexity. Thus, cooperation and harmonization is essential for the better future even if strategic competition, rivalry, global challenges are intensifying. However, we cannot forget the fact that communists were forefather who led China to modern huge socialist economy. That is the very reason they believes the magnitude of the rights of community higher than the individuals right. The perspectives in the Western world towards China is not positive even if it is not straightforward because it has identified China is looming threat to Western world. This perspectives came in to being due to the misinformation and lack of information available in relation to the chines strategies including the communism. a) Importance of Defence policy

Xiaoming, H. A. L., 2012. Sun Tzu's Wisdom behind China's Diplomacy and Defence Policy [speech] (01 02 2012).

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Within the period of cold war, the concept of security was evolving with military capabilities and the technology of weaponries. Therefore, the security of political and military power became the most concerned and important factor of the world politics in recent past. As result of that situation, even China also did not much concern over the defence policy much in early ages. It was rather late to China to adopt comprehensive defence policy which addressed issues beyond its territory. Threatening behaviour of the USA and USSR greatly encouraged China to contemplate comprehensive defence policy beyond the territorial integrity and sovereignty. The innate quality of the defence policy of China is not offensive but defensive. There are certain and pivotal objectives of defence policy which are supposed to be achieved through pursuing the strategic defence plan. A country has explicit and implicit defence objectives, which were to be achieved. But activities and various speeches will act as the guidelines for the national policies. Following inherent objective are ubiquitous in defence policy as per declarations made Chinese leaders Protection of motherland from external and internal threats.(including cyber space, electromagnetic or space) Consolidating national defence forces and apparatus Resisting aggression Protection of countrys sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity. Safeguard the national and maritime interests and national interests for development. The defence policy framework of china enables them to have their strategic plan to modernize their armed forces and weaponries with new technologies. This military modernization has two contradictory view points from current superpowers and China. The western world view this as imminent threat and China assert that this is their way improve the capabilities to safeguard to themselves on self-reliance. Modernization is streamlining the armed forces in Chinese way. In simple term their defence objectives can described as modernity, sovereignty, and stability.

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Hu Jintao (2007) stated To strengthen national defence and the armed forces occupies an important place in the overall arrangements for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Bearing in mind the overall strategic interests of national security and development, we must take both economic and national defence development into consideration and make our country prosperous and our armed forces powerful while building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.6 This statement reflects the spirit of chines position for their military and developments and their strategy towards, integration national and military development for a flourishing country. The economic developments is mostly performed through the military powers is vital aspect to see in Chinese context. The China mostly rely on military power of china in national economic development plan and promote active participation of military in economic construction promotion. This strategy is something like double-edged sword if it is reviewed in objective manner. If the demarcation between military development and national development is vague, China can do a lot of things to military development in name of economic developments. On the other hand, China wants to standardize and to have equal distribution of the benefits of economic developments for the whole country as they adhere to socialist principles. They perceived PLA is the only apparatus that can do in that manner. Therefore, a viewer from outside tend to think, or to have their understanding regarding chines defence policy get blurred. Thereat perceptions of China other than its general threat perceptions are indistinct due to unviability of information from China. After a rational analysis, Michael Pillsbury (2012)7 identified sixteen psychological fears that create their threat perceptions. Even if it is not a complete list of fears of China it has been responsible for formulating the defence and strategic policy to a great extent. The threat perception may drive a country to take proactive actions before it spoils or go

Hu, J. (2007). Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive for New Victories in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in all: Report to the Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Oct. 15, 2007.In Retrieve from http://www. china. org. cn/english/congress/229611. htm. 7 Michael Pillsbury (2012), The Sixteen Fears: China's Strategic Psychology, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 54:5, 149182.

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beyond their control. Therefore, these sixteen psychological fears8 are matters to be concerned as issues to be addressed by means of comprehensive defence and strategic policies. In this research paper, I would like to discuss how Chinas overall defence policy is formulated on four keystones i.e. in house, in immediate neighbour, in surrounding regional system and world beyond the Asia.

b) Defence policy implementation for in house matters The main attribute that we can observe at glance is integration of economic development, and military modernization in order to exploit opportunities to obtain fortified and well equipped military power compatible with its national security. This is also a strategic task for Chinas modernization and common expectation of all Chinese ethnic groups. China firmly takes the road of peaceful development, strives to build a harmonious socialist society internally while promoting enjoyment of lasting peace and prosperity of the world. China seems to believe internal and external link is so robust even if they restricted their internal affairs and no cushion to protect their internal environment if external environment factors fail. All China is doing can be done only in peaceful environment is the core belief in China. So this is rather different in western approach (e.g. Conspiracy theory adopted by westerners). Anyway, China intents to show that their intentions are not to be realpolitik oriented due to its socialism background. Reunification over the Taiwan Strait is very important point of the defence policy because the relation between two sides are yet to receive more strong form and mutual understand. By defence implementations, China hope to have healthy political and military relation will create proper and

Fear of an island blockade, Fear of a loss of maritime resources, Fear of the choking-off of sea lines of communication, Fear of a land invasion or territorial dismemberment, Fear of an armoured or airborne attack, Fear of internal instability, riots, civil war or terrorism, Fear of attacks on pipelines, Fear of aircraft-carrier strikes, Fear of major airstrikes, Fear of Taiwanese independence, Fear of insufficient forces to liberate Taiwan, Fear of attacks on strategic missile forces by commandos, jamming or precision strikes, Fear of escalation and loss of control, Fear of cyber-attack, Fear of attacks on anti-satellite capabilities and Fear regional neighbours India, Japan, Vietnam and Russia.

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pragmatic integration in to Chinese nation as they think it as the course of Chinese great rejuvenation. The Taiwan issue is closely related to Chinas external security and internal stability. Externally, a military clash across the Taiwan Strait could end up with a ChinaUS military conflict. Internally, the mishandling of the Taiwan issue could trigger off social instability and power struggle in China. However, Taiwan remains a security challenge to Beijing as strong opposition to and mistrust of Beijing still exists in Taiwan. In terms of security, it is crucial to observe the threat perceptions of Taiwan independence," East Turkistan independence", Muslim separatists in Xinjiang and "Tibet independence,. Therefore, a great part of defence policy is supposed to cover the problems arising with territorial integrity and sovereignty and oppose and contain separatist parties. In China, there a pretty amount of protesting were recorded indicating social instability. Later on the Chinese government issued Temporary Regulations Concerning the Implementation of an Accountability System for Senior Cadres of the Party and Government for ensuring the accountability of inappropriate mass handling case.9 Safeguarding sovereignty, territorial integrity, air security, protection of Chinese borders and coastal security are vital part of in this region of defence policy. The border and coastal defence forces of the PLA promote friendly cooperation in joint patrols with neighbour countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Vietnam. China defence policy asserts that this (peaceful period) is the strategic opportunity to address nation development and modernization of its military power with peaceful environment within and without. China consistently upholds the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, adheres to a selfdefensive nuclear strategy, and will never enter into a nuclear arms race with any other country. China utilise their military power not only for defence but also for active participation in national social and economic developments.

Yang, J., 2011. Chinas Security Challenges: Priorities and Policy implication. In: s.l.:s.n., pp. 142 o-159.

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c) Defence policy with immediate neighbours China has various issues and disputes with its immediate neighbours due to the land and sea borders. There are some elemental facts drawn from the defence policy are more persistent for a long duration. Meanwhile, territorial disputes with its neighbouring countries have been a constant challenge to Beijing. China has territorial disputes with a number of countries, including the dispute over Kashmir with India, the Spratly Islands (Nansha in Chinese) with Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bhutan, Brunei and possibly Indonesia, some of the Paracel Islands (Xisha in Chinese) with Vietnam, Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands with Japan, Japans equidistance line in the East China Sea, and certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers with North Korea. Even if they had problems in Russia, they peacefully resolved so far. The status of regional leader and modernization of PLA is implicitly used as deterrents factor in partisans of territorial disputes in some cases because it is easy understand that military clash doesnt bring a benefit other than cooperation on strong negotiation foundation. Anyway, China has taken several measurements to resolve boarder disputes through negotiations after military clashes such as Sino-Indian Bilateral Peace and Tranquillity Accords, 1991 Sino-Russian border agreement etc. Mainly, they shifted their policy from offensive confrontation to solid foundation of negotiation.

d) Defence policy towards surrounding regional system. With the military capabilities and economic power has eminent factors that change the security policy of China form protection sovereignty and territorial integrity to regional hegemony. In Chinese ideology, China has linked its strategic influence with overall development in various fields. By now, China is the military and economic dominator of the Asia Pacific region. Hence china, is the strategic and economic future of the region. As the regional leader, it has the power of balance to be

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security manager of the region with support of multilateral countries providing an option to region instead of the USA. Geopolitics, Close proximity, domestic, ethnic, political and religious dynamics are important determinants of defence policy of China in the current period. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is providing a forum to China to have economic, market and security resources. It is no wonder why ASEAN forum wary of regional affairs of China due the level of influence of the region. The latest issuance of the Chines defence policy has emphasized the close relation with North Korea in spite of western pressure. This point in their defence policy imply the power balance of the region in response to the Western. Maritime security is a paramount part of this part of their security policy, because the production output and input, resources, military transportation, mobility are main aspects to upgrade country to a hegemonic country. Economic developments, trading, shipping are almost depending on sea routes around the china. It is not a forgettable fact that ancient Silk Route had greatly influenced intra-continental economic, cultural and religious exchange in oriental world. As nexus of China geopolitical hegemony, China has built up military camps and projects call pearls
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in the region. This total projects is directed to exploit the opportunities to maintain

military capabilities, strategic advantage and forward presence. The collection of those pearl is called String of Pearl. However, the motivation behind the project is rational because, the as giant manufacturer, it needs to ensure the protection of sea line of communication (SLOC) from Middle East China. As anyone can observe, Hambanthota port and Mattala airport are also some kind of supportive installations for the Chinese concept of String of Pearls. But, the concept of String Peals is
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Hainan Island, with recently upgraded military facilities, is a pearl. An upgraded airstrip on Woody Island, located in the Paracel archipelago 300 nautical miles east of Vietnam, is a pearl. A container shipping facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, is a pearl. Construction of a deep water port in Sittwe, Myanmar, is a pearl, as is the construction of a navy base in Gwadar, Pakistan.Port and airfield construction projects, diplomatic ties, and force modernization form the essence of Chinas String of Pearls. The pearls extend from the coast of mainland China through the littorals of the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, and on to the littorals of the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf.

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becoming a headache of US policy makers due to resilience of the concept with defence strategy. But there is not any pressure made by China to those governments to do or be inclined to do due to growing security fear within the region and world.

Sea Lines of Communications e) Chinese security policy towards the world beyond Asia. It is not a surprise to think or say that China is approaching towards a world superpower. But unpredictable possibilities are also available that their course of journey is diverged or hinder. Most of time they have shown their intention to have strategic partnerships such as Russia and China for confidence building measurements and deep multilateral exchange were initiated after the SinoRussia agreement. Defence policy for nuclear defence is very important for the whole word since its the most tensional factor of the world. Up to this point they have strictly adhere to the policy of No-first--use

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(NFU

policy). But the recent issuance of white paper (2013-April-16)11 by the Chinese defence

ministry has stirred the western power over the omission of above vital fact. The ambiguity over the fact has been still existing without proper reaffirmation. Formulating the concept of comprehensive security and effectively conducting military operations other than war (MOOTW) has been stressed in the defence policy. Therefore the PLA is conducting military drills and military preparedness in order to position the PLA in a robust standard. China is extending its cooperation with other countries especially including Russia and USA for promoting international peace fulfilling its international obligation. More participations in peace operation, anti-piracy missions, and international relief project in international arena may imply its willingness to have more comprehensive obligations. This is an indication of Chines preparedness to have the status of Superpower.

4) Conclusion In mid-April, the Chinese government said the increased U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region causes a lot of tension, and they plan to send more military forces and strengthen their partnerships with neighbouring countries. A recent study found that China increasingly threatens to end the military supremacy of the USA.12 The USA is also forming USA ally ring around China to pressure its tension in relation to threat i.e. Philippine, Taiwan, Japan, India. This is really matter of power balance of the world with multipolarity and mostly the USA concern for losing it world order in place of new world order.

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Anon., 2013. Ministry of National Defence of China. [Online] Available at: ttp://eng.mod.gov.cn/Database/WhitePapers/index.htm [Accessed 16 09 2013].
12

Karpova, L., 2013. Prvuda.ru. [Online] Available at: http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/0405-2013/124484-china_military_rule-0[Accessed 10 09 2013].

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The size and the growth of Chines economy is apparent and their peaceful and independent foreign policy has yield opportunities from the world, especially various resource such as crude oil, mineral etc. Threat and coercive powers are not viable tools to exploit opportunities of the real world because the sovereignty of a country is undeniable. Most of efforts are existing to have unified nation and integration of regions and ethnic groups in Chinas defence policy but is not the real propensity of the world. People are willing to have a control unit which people can control easily with high influential power (e.g. small regional sovereignty). So the defence policy of China is comprehensively to be reviewed and modified in accordance with the current trends and necessities.

5) Bibliography
1. Anon., 2013. Ministry of National Defence of China. [Online] Available at: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/Database/WhitePapers/index.htm [Accessed 16 09 2013]. 2. C. Fred Bergsten et al., 2008. Chinas rise: challenges and opportunities. Washington D.C: PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS. 3. FELDSTEIN, M., August 2, 2012. China's Biggest Problems Are Political, Not Economic. The Wall Street Journal. 4. Frolic, B. M., 2009. Political Change in China. Toronto, Ontario,, York University, University of Toronto. 5. Karpova, L., 2013. Prvuda.ru. [Online] Available at: http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/04-05-2013/124484china_military_rule-0 [Accessed 10 09 2013]. 6. Pehrson, c. J., July 2006. String of Pearls: meeting the challenge of chinas rising Power, s.l.: U.S. Government. 7. Pillsbury, M., 2012. The Sixteen Fears: China's Strategic Psychology. In: Survival: Global Politics and Strategy. London: Routledge, pp. 149-182. 8. Xiaoming, H. A. L., 2012. Sun Tzu's Wisdom Behind China's Diplomacy and Defence Policy [Interview] (01 02 2012). 9. Yang, J., 2011. Chinas Security Challenges: Priorities and Policy implication. In: s.l.:s.n., pp. 142-159.

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