U.S. Pivot to Asia

"The U.S. is adjusting its Asia-Pacific security strategy and the regional landscape is undergoing profound changes.
"Frequently (this policy) makes the situation there more tense."
Official Chinese government statement

The statement above is part of a recently-released official government report. A report that describes, among other matters, China's commitment to a doctrine of peaceful development. "China will never seek hegemony or behave in a hegemonic manner, nor will it engage in military expansion", the report stated sanctimoniously.

On the basis of what is being reported in the news relating to China's expansionist strong-arming of its neighbours, contesting their heritage claims to their backyard ownership of parts of the South China Sea, one might imagine otherwise. China's idea of peaceful development is not one that Japan, South Korea and the Philippines might readily recognize.

They are coping with a belligerent bully, shoving aside their historical positions of national integrity and territorial ownership, claiming all that they have assumed to be their own offshore, as China's and none others. Energy- and materials-hungry China has its eye on the future of harvesting natural resources from the seabed, and envisions no assertive upstarts standing in their way.

As for hegemony, Taiwan might think differently, and China's relationship with North Korea, as its sponsor-protector and aid-provisioner certainly seems to speak of hegemony. It is natural enough, however, even given all that, for China to feel put-upon by the closer and more ubiquitous presence of American troops and interests in its geographical bailiwick.

Were the situation reversed, and China were to make blatant and obvious incursions into North America, other than the investment of which it is so fond -- and which makes host countries rather nervous; both indebted and uncertain of China's full intentions -- it could be certain that the United States would do its share of humphing and haranguing.

To ensure that the message gets through, China has laid out in that same report the scale of its expanding military. China's People's Liberation Army boasts of seven regional commands with the navy and air force having 235,000 and 398,000 members respectively. Doesn't sound too ominously threatening for a country whose population strains beyond 1.3-billion.

"The country's core force for strategic deterrence", oversees its nuclear arsenal, tasked with "deterring other countries from using nuclear weapons against China". As if. The total of China's Second Artillery Force is listed as 1.48 million, surprisingly a decline from the 2006 figure of 2.3 million members. Its defence budget is now the world's second largest, at $102-billion.

The world's number one defence budget is, unsurprisingly, that of the United States, at $664.8-billion, in 2011. And it is being cut back, as a cost-saving measure by a country deep in financial liabilities, with a staggering deficit and even worse debt. Some huge measure of which is held by - ta-dum! - China.

And, needless to say, to protect its investment China wishes the U.S. all the very best.