In a thinly veiled criticism of the current foreign policy, Jia Qingguo, CPPCC Standing Committee member,
former Dean of Peking University’s International Relations School, and an America expert, wrote an article
in the January issue of the bimonthly Journal of International Security Studies, published by the University
of International Relations in Beijing, which cautioned that overemphasis on absolutes, whether it is defence
spending or supply chains, is likely to be self-destructive. He said, “To ignore the comparative nature of
security, and blindly pursue [it] absolutely will result in making the country less secure, as it inflicts
unbearable costs and fails to achieve absolute security.” The South China Morning Post (January 22) said
that while Jia Qingguo opens with paying homage to President Xi Jinping’s general views on national
security, his 22-page article is full of thinly veiled criticisms against hawkish outlooks. He says too much
emphasis on defence spending could trigger an arms race making all countries involved less secure and cites the Soviet Union’s decades of massive defence spending as a typical example of the drawbacks of ignoring
long-term security, which led to the federation’s ultimate disintegration in 1991.
(Comment: The article appears when China's relations with the US are under considerable strain and Beijing
faces economic difficulties. Other prominent Chinese have recently suggested modulation of the present
policies, but without appearing to be critical of Xi Jinping.)
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