May 28 2015 at 12:50 PM
Updated May 28 2015 at 2:20 PM
China's 'egregious claims' Australia's worst threat since Cold War: ASPI
Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands. Reuters
by John Kerin
Australia is facing the greatest threat to peace and security since the Cold War amid China's egregious claim over the South China Sea and the break out of medieval barbarism in the Middle East, according to one of the Australia's foremost defence analysts.
Releasing his annual budget outlook which warned the government would have to plug for steady increases over the next 10 years to reach its goal of boosting spending to 2 per cent of GDP, Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Mark Thomson said "not at least since the Cold War has it been so easy to paint a disturbing picture of the global strategic landscape".
"After two decades of strong economic growth, China is testing the limits of its neighbours forebearance, including through an egregious claim to almost all of the South China Sea," Dr Thomson says in the annual Cost of Defence budget analysis.
"It's a claim [China] is asserting through brinkmanship rather than diplomacy.
"If only the United States was the omnipotent power it once was...over the past five years China's real defence spending has increased by 48 per cent while US defence spending has fallen by almost 18 per cent," Dr Thomson says.
Though the United States is still estimated to outspend China by 3 times on defence - the true extent of Chinese defence spending is unknown.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated the US spent $610 billion on defence in 2014 whereas China is estimated to have spent $216 billion in 2014.
"With such an outlook you would think it would be easy to make the case for robust defence spending [but just as there are dark clouds on the strategic horizon, dark clouds are gathering on the economic horizon," Dr Thomson says citing stunted growth in the US, Eurozone and Japan and pressure on the Australian budget.
China also this week unveiled a defence white paper which made clear its intention to project naval power in to the Pacific.
Dr Thomson said the dissent of Syria and Iraq in to medieval barbarism, the potential for a nuclear breakout in the Middle East over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Russia's militarism and the North Korean nuclear threat all added to heady mix of threats to peace and prosperity.
Dr Thomson's warning come after reports on Thursday that China is moving weaponry on to some of the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
The US has ramped up its response to China's bid to secure its territorial claims by building on islands in the South China Sea including expanding US Air Force surveillance flights.
Australia has also become involved in the bitter dispute after it was revealed last week Canberra was involved in negotiations with Washington to rotate supersonic B1 bombers through Australian airbases - a move which prompted a rebuke from Beijing.
Australian Defence Department secretary Dennis Richardson on Wednesday warned China's rapid and extensive reclamation of areas in the South China Sea was of considerable concern if it was being done for military reasons.
"We[Australia] are concerned about the unprecedented pace and scale of China's land reclamation activities in the South China Sea over the last couple of years," Mr Richardson said.
Dr Thomson said Australia's defence spending would grow bu $2 billion in 2015-16 to $32.1 billion.
As a share of GDP he said defence spending would rise to 1.93 per cent of GDP but it included a large chunk for compensating defence for foreign exchange fluctuations with the cost of overseas weaponry being more expensive and the additional cost of operations in the Afghanistan and Iraq.
Dr Thomson urged the Abbott government if it wanted to achieve the 2 per cent target by 2023-24 to boost spending in manageable increments of around 4.5 per cent every year lest it exceed the capacity of defence and industry to deliver on projects and new weaponry.
Dr Thomson said the defence community was eagerly awaiting the release of the government's 20 year vision for defence in the form of the Defence White Paper later this year.
He said only then could final judgements be made about the threats to Australia, future funding and direction for the force.
***
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01062015
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment