Op-Ed Contributors

Asia shouldn't be swayed by West

By Yin Jiwu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-27 07:56

In a recent column on the US Foreign Policy website, Christian Caryl writes: "The Cold War was scary enough. Now try to imagine a nuclear arms race between China and India." Well, for generations that have grown up after World War II, the Cold War was indeed a nightmare.

But it seems the West has developed its own perspective on peace and order in Asia. It sees what it wants to see. And its tainted glasses make even the unwitting moves of China and India appear as deliberately planned plots.

Western defense analysts have coined a term "security dilemma". It refers to a situation in which actions by a state to strengthen its security, such as increasing its military strength or forming alliances, can make other states respond with similar strategic measures. This heightens tensions that could lead to conflict, even when neither of the sides wants it.

What Western analysts don't (or don't want to) understand is that most of the Asian countries emerged from centuries of Western colonial rule and plundering of their resources just five to six decades ago. East and South Asian countries have coexisted for millenniums and are now in the process of transition from the old to the new order. Disputes among countries over territories and/or regional leadership during this period is not uncommon and should not be seen as threat to anybody.

To some extent, a "security dilemma" does exist in Asia. But that does not necessarily mean China and India are engaged in (or could start) a nuclear arms race. Anybody who thinks so is suffering from "Cold War fever".

US President Barack Obama's conservative attitude toward his country's nuclear arsenal at the Nuclear Security Summit in April this year made his "dream" of a nuclear-free world nothing more that a "dream". The US has 2,100 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and Russia, 2,600. The two sides signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on April 8, which if ratified would prevent each side from deploying more than 1,550 strategic warheads.

But the two countries are playing a "numerical game" by including the nuclear warheads they reduced earlier, giving an indication that they are unlikely to meet the target. More importantly, there's no certainty that their lawmakers will ratify the treaty.

Despite all this, Western analysts talk about a nuclear arms race in Asia. Just look at the US military budget, which is several times more than the defense spending of East Asian countries put together. Yet they hardly talk about Western countries' huge defense budgets and do not miss even half a chance to criticize or warn against the dangers of a non-existent arms race in Asia.

The US reportedly used laser weapons to shoot down drones during a recent test, seemingly re-igniting Americans' passion for the "Strategic Defense Initiative" (Star Wars Project), propounded by former president Ronald Reagan. This shows that the biggest challenge to world peace is not the military development in Asian countries, but the US hegemony and its desperate attempts to become the deciding factor in international defense matters. Unfortunately, the US has not changed its fundamental foreign policy even after suffering the deadliest terrorist attack and a grave economic crisis.