Name? Philip Davidson
Westphalian identity? US American
Age? 60
Why is he in the news? US Military Asia Pacific commander Philip Davidson warned the US Congress of China’s growing military power, especially with regards to Taiwan. “I worry that China is accelerating its ambitions to supplant the US and our leadership role in the rules-based international order… by 2050.”
Why do we care? Well, China just increased its defense budget by 6,8% and wants to become less dependent on exports in the future. These can be seen as indicators of a Chinese government preparing for conflict over Taiwan which is at the heart of US-Sino tensions.
Why should you care? The US recently pushed NATO to consider China as the next big systemic competitor as many experts consider this confrontation to be the next large scale conflict. The question now is if you believe that increased militarisation will inherently lead to an armed conflict or that the level of deterrence will save us from one? Regardless, you should care 9/10 about a US-Sino confrontation on any and all fronts.
Who else cares? Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the 13th NPC. He stressed that China’s defense policy is “defensive in nature, the efforts to strengthen our national defense do not target or threaten any other country.” Considering that China considers Taiwan to be part of its sovereign territory, this is a correct statement from a Chinese perspective but for Davidson, a sign to worry about Taiwanese security.
Any further comments? Because the US is the world’s top military spender with a budget four times as high as the Chinese one, it’s no surprise that Davidson made this statement. China only expects to have modernised its military by 2035; keeping in mind that modernising does not mean equalizing military power to the US. Therefore, we can only assume Davidson made his 6-year statement to scare politicians and to receive even more funding for the US military.
