China says its military not a threat

[cato2]

China says its military not a threat
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) -- Claims that China's military development is a threat are "totally groundless," Beijing's defense chief said in Tokyo on Thursday while assuring his Japanese hosts that China is becoming more open about its defense spending.
Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan's assertions came as the two countries agreed on reciprocal port calls by navy ships, with a Chinese warship to visit Japan as early as November for the first time since World War II, Japanese defense officials said.
Cao met with his Japanese counterpart and made a speech as part of his five-day visit to Japan, which is aimed at reversing a freeze in defense contacts between the two Asian neighbors and improving overall ties.
The visit, the first by a Chinese defense chief to Japan in nearly a decade, comes amid persistent concerns in Japan about China's military buildup. Tokyo has expressed alarm at the pace of Chinese defense spending, and the lack of transparency in Beijing's military budget.
Cao insisted in his speech to Japanese defense officials and lawmakers that China's military growth was not aimed at any country or people, and he reiterated Beijing's stance that it would never use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states - a group that includes Japan.
"Some people who are not well-informed are making noises about China becoming a military threat, but that is totally groundless," said Cao, who arrived in Japan on Wednesday. Japanese former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, for instance, has called China's military a threat.
In talks with Cao earlier Thursday, Japanese Defense Minister Masahiko Komura urged China to disclose more details about its soaring military budget, repeating a concern that has also been voiced in Washington.
In June, China said its military budget for 2007 increased by 17.8 percent to $44.9 billion. However, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and the Pentagon have accused China of understating the amount. Skelton has estimated that "real" budget is between $85 billion and $125 billion.
Komura specifically urged China to reveal details of troop deployment, equipment and training.
Cao said Beijing was increasing transparency, and that the growth in spending has largely gone to salaries, uniforms and modernization of equipment in line with international trends, a Japanese defense official said on customary condition of anonymity.
Cao also pointed to Taiwan as a justification for its spending. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing considers the island part of its territory. China has threatened to invade Taiwan to block it achieving formal independence.
"China needs military spending because of the Taiwan situation," the defense official quoted Cao as telling Komura. "To defend China's sovereignty and security, some of our finances must go into defense."
Japan's Defense Ministry lists Chinese military expansion as a top security concern in the region. Tokyo also expressed alarm when China successfully tested an anti-satellite missile in January, becoming only the third country to destroy an object in space.
During the talks, Komura and Cao agreed to launch a working group to discuss possibly setting up a telephone hot line between their armies. The United States and China are also considering a similar hot line. The two sides also agreed on the reciprocal port calls.
Cao also addressed Japanese troops before the talks Thursday.
Tokyo's relations with Beijing have been improving since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a fence-mending trip to China immediately after taking office last September, reversing a steep decline in relations under his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
Cao is the first Chinese defense minister to visit Japan since Chi Haotian came to Tokyo in February 1998.
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Associated Press writer Kozo Mizoguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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[Woodmonkey]

China has skewed the ratio of male/females with their policy of one child per family and the Chinese preference for male children. That policy has lead to infanticide and abortions when the sex of the fetus has been determined to be female.

What I'm leading up to is that women have a softening effect on society - if that's a sexist statement then so be it.

As time goes by, there will be fewer women for the growing numbers of men, many of whom are heading to the military. That has already started to show up and it will only get worse.

All that testosterone and no release. That might sound frivolous, but I think there's cause for alarm. I read some where that the number of female children born is half or less than before this one child per family policy.

[cato2]

It is a question of reigning in a population that has been historically a problem in China. They has been a problem longer then our own country has been in existence. And while we adhere to Christian doctrine for the most part in our society, they do not and as a result their methods seem barbaric.

But what is the real solution to their problem, grow more food alone? What if the population does not do follow the government's suggestion for birth control? What should the government response be?

Mexico has a similar problem because of the heavy influence of the Catholic Church, where a large family is very common. Both countries have real issues that will not be resolved in one generation. And in the case of Mexico, the overpopulation of that country has lead many north, not just for the potential of a better life, but the ability to raise a family and feed it.

Historical records show that as long ago as 800 BC, in the early part of the Zhou dynasty, China was already inhabited by about 13.7 million people. Until the last years of the Xi (Western) Han dynasty, about AD 2, comparatively accurate and complete registers of population were kept, and the total population in that year was given as 59.6 million. This first Chinese census was intended mainly as a preparatory step toward the levy of a poll tax. Many people, aware that a census might work to their disadvantage, managed to avoid reporting, which explains why for centuries all subsequent population figures were unreliable. In 1712 the Ming emperor Rendi declared that an increased population would not be subject to tax; population figures thereafter gradually became more accurate.

During the later years of the Bei (Northern) Song dynasty, in the early 12th century, when China was already in the heyday of its economic and cultural development, the total population began to exceed 100 million. Later, uninterrupted and large-scale invasions from the north reduced the country's population. When national unification returned with the advent of the Ming dynasty, the census was at first strictly conducted. The population of China, according to a registration compiled in 1381, was quite close to the one registered in AD 2.

From the 15th century onward the population increased steadily, growth being interrupted by wars and natural disasters in the mid-17th century and slowed by the internal strife and foreign invasions in the century that preceded the communist takeover in 1949. During the 18th century China enjoyed a lengthy period of peace and prosperity, characterized by continual territorial expansion and an accelerating population increase. In 1762 China had a population of more than 200 million, and by 1834 that population had doubled. It should be noted that during that period the amount of cultivable land did not increase concomitantly, and land hunger became a growing problem from that time on.

After 1949, sanitation and medical care greatly improved, epidemics were brought under control, and subsequent generations enjoyed progressively better health. Public hygiene also improved, and, as a result, the death rate declined faster than the birth rate, and the population growth rate increased. China's population reached 1 billion in the early 1980s and had surpassed 1.3 billion early in the 21st century.

The continually growing population has been a major problem for the government. In 1955–58, with the country struggling to obtain an adequate food supply and saddled with a generally low standard of living, the authorities sponsored a major birth-control drive. A second attempt at population control began in 1962, when the main initiatives were programs promoting late marriages and the use of contraceptives. The outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 interrupted this second family-planning drive, but in 1970 a third and much stricter program was initiated. The attempt this time was to make late marriage and family limitation obligatory, and it culminated in 1979 in efforts to implement a policy of one child per family.

Other developments affected the rate of population growth more than the first two official family-planning campaigns, notably the disastrous effects of Chinese leader Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward economic program of 1958–60. The policies of the Great Leap caused a massive famine in China, the death rate surpassed the birth rate, and by 1960 the overall population was declining. By 1963 the country was recovering from the famine, and, even though the second birth-control campaign had already begun, a soaring birth rate produced an annual population growth rate of more than 3 percent, the highest since 1949.

Since 1970, however, when the third family-planning program was launched, state efforts have been much more effective. China's population growth rate is now among the lowest for a developing country, although, because its population is so huge, annual net population growth is still considerable.

China :: Population growth -- Encyclopaedia Britannica

[Snowden]

I think Katie has made a very important point here. Somewhere, not in China, these men will be hunting for women. Sadly, this will water down the ethnic Chinese society, but it will be necessary.

The army in China is a threat to everybody, including the Chinese, I'm afraid. We really will have to keep an eye on what happens there.

[cato2]

[There is no shortage of woman in China, what their problem is amounts to rapid growth of the population and the attempts to stem that growth. While our news focuses on the exception, the reality is far different. Just how would you control the population, what method would you enact?


Executive Summary:
Demographic Profile of China

* With an estimated 1.28 billion people in 2002, The People’s Republic of China has over 20% of the world’s population, making it about equal to the second and third largest countries (India and the U.S.) combined.

* China’s landmass of 3.7 million square miles is slightly smaller than the area of the United States. However, its population density of 344 people per square mile is roughly four times greater than that of the U.S. Although China’s population is five times as large as that of the U.S., the proportion of land that is arable (10%) is only about half as great as that of the U.S. (19%).

* In 1949, following victory in their civil war against the Nationalist government of the Kuomintang, the Communists, led by Mao Tse Tung, proclaimed The People’s Republic of China. A collective economic system was imposed, which permitted little enterprise, and economic development proceeded only sporadically. In 1976, economic reforms began to be introduced and privatization encouraged. The political structure in China remains a one-party dictatorship.

POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

* Ninety-two percent of the Chinese people are ethnic Hans; the population belonging to the 55 minority nationalities is gaining rapidly, however. From 1982 to 1990, the non-Han population grew by 3.8% per year while the numbers in the nation as a whole increased by 1.5% per year. Most recently, the 2000 Census counted 103.7 million (8%) non-Hans; some of the largest groups are the Zhuang, Manchu, Moslem Hui, Miao, Uighur, Mongolian, and Tibetan.

* China’s population is unevenly distributed geographically; 95% of the population lives in the southeastern half of the country. The central government has tried to encourage migration to the northwest by offering economic incentives to move to Tibet, Qinghai, and Gansu. This policy has created ethnic conflict between the non-Han populations in the Northwest and the Han migrants, who receive better pay and benefits.

URBAN AND RURAL CHARACTERISTICS


* Between 1982 and 1990, China’s urban population increased from 21% to 26%. Currently, 36% of the Chinese people are urban dwellers.

* Fertility rates vary greatly between urban and rural areas. The total fertility rate (TFR), which is the average number of children born per woman at current fertility rates, has not fallen below 2.5 children per woman in rural areas, while it is as low as 1.2 children per woman in urban areas. Without immigration, China’s urban population in the 25-35 age group will decline over the next decade as the "one-child" generation reaches adulthood.

* Since 1949, migration from rural to urban areas has been restricted, resulting in a 30% surplus of rural labor. In 2001, China’s hukou system, which registers people with reference to their household or land, showed 74% of China’s population to be rural residents. The 2000 Census, however, identified only 64% as rural residents. An estimated 130 million Chinese were living in places other than those where they were registered.

POPULATION GROWTH

* From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, China’s population grew slowly, from about 400 million to the 583 million enumerated in the 1953 census. After the Communist takeover in 1949, a near-universal health care system was implemented, reducing mortality rates, especially the infant mortality rate. Partly in consequence, the population has more than doubled over the last 50 years to over 1.2 billion people. For most years between 1949 and the mid-1970s, the growth rate was above 2%.

* China’s growth rate declined to an average of 1.07% per year between 1990 and 2000. In 2001 it was as low as 0.88%. Although China has made the transition from high to low birth and death rates, each year the number of births exceeds the number of deaths by about 9 million. This is due to population momentum: the very large group of women now in their peak childbearing years results in many births without necessarily raising the total fertility rate. Currently, the TFR is 1.82 births per woman.

POPULATION POLICY

* Over the last 50 years China’s population policy has evolved from Marxist-based pronatalism to a one-child policy. By the 1960s, the government began to acknowledge the adverse effects of rapid growth. It introduced measures to increase the legal age at marriage to 25 for women and 27 for men, and to promote contraception and abortion in urban areas. In the 1970s, this program was expanded to rural areas. From 1970 to 1979, TFR fell from 5.8 to 2.7, possibly the greatest decline ever recorded in one decade.

* Fearing the consequences of rapid growth due to population momentum, the government initiated a one-child policy in 1979. To lower fertility, the policy mandated fines for unauthorized children, raised minimum marriage ages further, and required IUD insertion, abortion and sterilization. Although this policy has been effective in lowering the TFR, its coercive features sparked international objections. In 1985, the U.S. suspended its contribution to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), in part because of China’s severe policy. U.S. funding of UNFPA was reinstated in 1993, but again suspended in 2002.

* The one-child policy has met with strong opposition in rural areas, where many people believe a son is necessary to care for elderly parents. When reforms disbanded the rural communes, the basic economic unit shifted from the commune to the family, and larger families came to be identified with economic opportunity and support in old age.

* Accordingly, the one-child policy appears to have accentuated the traditional Chinese preference for sons. During the 1980s, an imbalance in the sex ratio of boys to girls was documented. Initially, this was attributed to under-reporting of female births. However, a comparison of the sex ratio of 5 to 10- year-old children with birth data from the years in which they were born shows that the imbalance does not disappear. Using indirect methods, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the infant mortality rate for girls born in 1990 was 1.65 times that of boys.

* In December 2001, The People’s Congress approved the Population and Family Planning Law, which reinforces and standardizes the one-child policy across all regions of the country. The law does permit some segments of the population, including rural couples whose first child is female, to have a second child. There are incentives for families that do not violate the policy, but fines will no longer be imposed on those who have a second child.

Population Resource Center

[redtanker]

I think everyone has made good points here. I have plenty to say about China and their Military Power. I think most people know that about me already.
I will say that another country said, not so long ago, Our military build up is for our protection only. We are no threat to our neighbors. Germany 1938.