{"id":65910,"date":"2023-12-07T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/12\/07\/what-chinas-increasing-use-of-military-over-diplomacy-means-for-us\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:03:34","slug":"what-chinas-increasing-use-of-military-over-diplomacy-means-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/outlook\/2023\/12\/07\/what-chinas-increasing-use-of-military-over-diplomacy-means-for-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What China\u2019s increasing use of military over diplomacy means for US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 In August 2022, after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China\u2019s military did the talking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It lobbed ballistic missiles around the island, some landing just inside Japanese waters. More than 20 Chinese aircraft flew across the midpoint between the mainland and Taiwan, a move once considered taboo. The People\u2019s Liberation Army staged elaborate military exercises, rehearsing the parts it could play in an actual invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were two key aspects of the response: One, the PLA flouted norms \u2014 and has kept doing so in the year since \u2014 that had kept the Taiwan Strait stable for decades. And two, while China\u2019s government had multiple ways to signal its displeasure at the visit, it chose its military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a new hallmark of Chinese foreign policy under President Xi Jinping, according to the Pentagon\u2019s annual assessment of China\u2019s military strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe [People\u2019s Republic of China] has increasingly turned to the PLA as an instrument of statecraft to advance its foreign policy objectives,\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, when China senses a problem abroad, it\u2019s now more likely to use the military to solve it. This approach, say Pentagon officials and outside analysts, has been in the works for years and speaks to the PLA\u2019s weight class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has spent decades bolstering its military with the goal to fully become a \u201cworld class\u201d force by 2049. That offers challenges for the U.S., which has spent recent years shoring up alliances and partnerships in the vast Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the U.S. may soon encounter Chinese forces in more areas around the globe, it\u2019s also concerned about China\u2019s desire to unite Taiwan with the mainland, since Beijing considers the island nation a rogue province. And a foreign policy reliant on military force could make an invasion more likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you go back to 2016, the military element was part of what has been a diplomatic, economic, information, influence and military pressure campaign against Taiwan,\u201d a senior Pentagon official said on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen in more recent years is the military playing a more outsized role in that pressure campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A more precise hammer\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Nearly every world power, if not all, uses its military for statecraft \u2014 not least the United States. Take for example the two flotillas America rushed to the Middle East after Israel declared war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China may have longed for such a capability, but lacked the military strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since he took office in 2012, the Chinese president has steered massive amounts of money into the military. It now spends the second-most money on defense with a budget of about $230 billion in 2022<\/a>, according to the Pentagon report; only America\u2019s defense spending exceeds that amount, with the Defense Department\u2019s fiscal 2022 budget reaching $740 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President President Xi Jinping walk in the gardens at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, Calif., on Nov, 15, 2023. (Doug Mills\/The New York Times via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In October 2022, Xi reaffirmed his goal for the PLA to be capable of unifying Taiwan with the mainland by 2027. By 2035, its modernization effort is to be \u201cbasically complete,\u201d the Pentagon noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the trends noted in the Pentagon\u2019s report are a rise in China\u2019s ballistic missile arsenal, the addition of 30 ships in the People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy fleet, and a growth in the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force\u2019s combat aircraft fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And last year, the Chinese military continued its trend of holding increasingly more military exercises with Russia, one of America\u2019s leading adversaries. The Pentagon anticipates the PLA will host more joint drills with foreign partners in the years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s military is also \u201cvery likely\u201d working to grow the number of overseas logistics facilities after the first such base in Djibouti in 2017, the report noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to be prepared for PLA presence, ultimately, in locations where we\u2019re not used to having them,\u201d the Pentagon official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closer to home, China\u2019s military has shown assertiveness in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. The Pentagon has recently released videos showing Chinese jets buzzing past U.S. and allied aircraft in the region. In one example, a Chinese J-11 fighter flew within 10 feet from an American B-52 bomber at night. There were more than 180 of these \u201ccoercive and risky\u201d intercepts against American aircraft in the last two years \u2014 more than occurred in the previous decade, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is part of a larger effort by Beijing to use the military as a regional bouncer, per U.S. assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re leaning on the PLA more to try to intimidate, to coerce, to increase risk, and thereby make the U.S. … and other countries think twice about conducting actions that we have every right to conduct,\u201d the Pentagon official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, this midair activity has amounted to only close calls. In part, that reflects China\u2019s newfound capabilities. For example, in 2001, one of its aircraft crashed into a U.S. surveillance plane, leading to a short-lived diplomatic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today, China\u2019s pilots are more skilled and its aircraft more advanced, allowing them to fly closer to adversaries while avoiding a collision, according to Rod Lee, director of research at the U.S. Air Force\u2019s China Aerospace Studies Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can use the military maybe not as a scalpel, but it is a more precise hammer than it used to be,\u201d Lee told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Meia Nouwens, a China expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, Beijing may increasingly find diplomacy less appealing when it comes to its relationship with Taipei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just seems like perhaps they\u2019re more willing [to use the PLA] because they have the capability to do so, but also because there are fewer options left for them to explore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The change follows a decades-long modernization of China’s military to create a “world class” 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