From the Readers

What is 'China threat' theory

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-09 08:02

Comment on "China threat theory is absurd" (China Daily, Sept 2)

While one agrees with most of Liu Xiaoying's comments on the absurdity of the so-called "China threat" theory, he doesn't quite demonstrate what people in the West, especially the US, mean by it. This is important, for in order to combat or remove the assumptions behind the so-called "China threat" theory we have to understand what its proponents mean.

From my understanding, the idea of "China threat" operates on two levels: military and ideological. On the military level, the idea of "China threat" has been inherent to US government policies after being first expressed in a 1992 Pentagon document called the Defense Planning Guidance (DPG). At the time, DPG was considered a master blueprint for America's global dominance in the post-Cold War era. Prepared under the supervision of Paul Wolfowitz, then US under secretary of defense, DPG called for concerted efforts to prevent the rise of any military competitor to the US.

The second threat level is ideological. The US was a benign onlooker when the Chinese economy began growing in the 1980s and 1990s. As times went by, the US began realizing that not only would China maintain its socialist political system, based on its own principles of democracy, but also the State leadership would play its guiding role in the economy. From the above, it should be obvious that America will never accept China as a fair and equal partner in global or even regional affairs. Under the circumstances, the best policy China can adopt is the one it seems to be pursuing now, that is, avoiding military conflicts and reducing its exports and investment to and in the US, and focusing on the potential of not only its giant domestic market, but also the rest of Asia.

Ross Grainger, via e-mail

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(China Daily 09/09/2010 page9)