Video summary
China's evolving security policy is fundamentally driven by a dual objective: advancing its national sovereignty and global interests while asserting an increasingly prominent role on the world stage. The People's Republic of China has demonstrated a growing willingness and capability to employ effective military coercion and inducements to achieve these aims, aiming to respond globally to any security challenge that threatens its interests. A central component of this strategy involves complicating the security calculus of potential adversaries by diverting, dividing, dissuading, and diluting their ability to threaten China. This approach is particularly evident in the Indo-Pacific region, where five of the seven mutual defense treaties involving the United States are located, covering South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia. Beijing seeks to pause these allies before they unilaterally commit to supporting the United States in a potential conflict, capitalizing on current administrative preferences for unilateral action and skepticism toward multilateral institutions.
The strategic expansion of China's influence extends deeply into international organizations and even within existing alliance structures, exploiting divisions to increase its own sway. From a nuclear perspective, China's significant buildup is designed to provide extended deterrence as its interests expand globally, creating unique dilemmas for adversaries regarding the potential engagement of Chinese nuclear-enabled submarines in distant waters like the Indian Ocean or the Persian Gulf. This capability underscores the reality that modern conflicts will quickly become globalized, necessitating a robust defense posture far beyond China's immediate borders. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to secure global safety for China, which explains substantial investments in port facilities worldwide intended to allow Beijing to project power wherever its interests might be threatened or require support.
This comprehensive approach frames both China's foreign policy toward other nations and its military strategy, ensuring it can defend its security interests anywhere in the world. The strategic importance of locations like Djibouti is highlighted by the fact that nearly every significant nation, including the United States, France, and Japan, maintains a military presence there to control critical sea lines of communication. By establishing bases next to these existing facilities, China enhances its ability to operate globally and defend against threats from any distance. Ultimately, these developments illustrate a coherent strategy where infrastructure investments and military capabilities are aligned to ensure that China can effectively respond to security challenges on a global scale, thereby securing its position as a major power with far-reaching influence.
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What is China's security policy shaping
up to be in light of both Ukraine and
other lessons learned from around the
world? If you look at the PRC's only
documents, their defense policy and
strategy, their stated defense policy
remains oriented toward advancing their
sovereignty, their security, their
developed interest while emphasizing a
greater global role for China. Okay.
Beijing has demonstrated an increasing
willingness and an ability to use
effective military coercion and
inducements to achieve these aims. Uh
their aim is to be able to respond
globally to any security challenge that
threatens China's interest and to
complicate the security calculus of
potential adversaries by diverting,
dividing, dissuading and diluting their
ability to threaten China. It has not
gone unnoticed by the Chinese that five
of our seven mutual defense treaties,
that is treaties that stipulate that an
attack on country X is the same as an
attack on the United States and vice
versa. Of the seven we have globally,
five of the seven are in the Indoacific
region. And going from north to south,
we have South Korea, Japan, the
Philippines, Thailand, and Australia.
Hey, China's aim is to give our allies a
bit of pause for thought uh before
committing unilaterally to supporting
the United States in a potential
conflict with China. We have to be
honest, China is capitalizing on the
current administration's preference for
unilateral action, skepticism towards
foreign aid and and multilateral
institutions and confrontational re
relationships even with our most
traditional allies. And the Chinese are
are
exploiting this by expanding their own
relationships to increase their
influence within international
organizations and even within our our
own alliance structures. Okay. From a
nuclear perspective, China's nuclear
buildup is designed to provide them with
extended deterrence as their interests
expand and they entertain global
ambitions. And this expanded nuclear
deterrence, particularly in submarines,
which is a strength of ours, is going to
pose some unique dilemmas for us. Do we
strike a Chinese nuclear enabled
submarine in the Indian Ocean, in the
Persian Gulf, in the Caribbean if we
have to? Okay, which goes back to my
point about all of these conflicts are
going to go global very quickly. Now,
it's not a surprise to any of our
listeners that China's first goal is to
project power, excuse me, through the
first island chain or beyond the first
island chain and then the second island
chain. But their ultimate goal is the
global security for China and and this
is to certain extent explains for
example their investment in port
facilities all around the world. They
want to be prepared uh to bring their
power to bear wherever in the world uh
they might they might need it. Um, so I
think all of these things speak to the
overall strategy that the Chinese are
looking at and and it kind of frames
both their foreign policy approach uh to
dealing with foreign nations as well as
um their military strategy. I remember
when I went to uh I came out of the
Indopacific command and I went to the
Africa command to be the director of
strategy and the first question they
asked me there was are the Chinese going
to build a base in Djibouti and I said
absolutely and they said what will what
makes you so sure and I said well every
other country on earth or every other
significant country the United States
France even Japan the only Japanese
military base outside of Japan uh has
recognized the importance of the Baba
mendeb okay and that choke that sea line
of communication choke point. So why
wouldn't the Chinese put a base there
right next to ours and right next to the
Japanese? Uh, and so all of these bases
and the things that they're building are
to enhance a strategy of being able to
defend China's security interest
wherever in the world it might be
threatened.