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Title:
An Awkward Embrace: The United States and China in the 21st Century -
Format:
HardCover -
Hardcover Price:
50.00 -
Hardcover ISBN:
978-0844772356 - Buy the Book
Article Highlights
- The American focus on Chinese transparency is misplaced.
- American distrust of China is intimately linked to the very nature of the People’s Republic, and the reverse is true as well.
- For the foreseeable future, true Sino-American trust will remain illusory.
The release of China’s biennial defense white paper has been getting some press for its revelations about the People’s Liberation Army’s force structure. Chinese media outlet Xinhua, for example, reported that “the Chinese government on Tuesday declassified the designations of all 18 combined corps of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as the latest step to increase transparency of its armed forces.”
While it is difficult to applaud the PLA for declassifying information that was already common knowledge (see, for example, the sinodefence.com page on army organization, last updated four years ago), more transparency is certainly better than less. Still, the American focus on Chinese transparency is misplaced. Of course, the Pentagon would like to see its Chinese counterpart be more candid about PLA capabilities and investments; to the extent the United States can coax China towards such candor, it should do so.
The full text of this article is available on the CNN Global Public Square website.
