China's strategic objectives of building up its armed forces and the policy implications for Asia

11th Annual International ADI Conference | 18-19 June 2019

Asian Dynamics Initiative, University of Copenhagen
South Campus, Njalsgade 120, 2300 Copenhagen S

Conveners: You Ji, University of Macau and Bertel Heurlin, Dept. of Political Science, University of Copenhagen

China is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its opening -up policy which gave rise to an unprecedented ever expanding economic development, which was followed by an equivalent strengthening of its armed forces. Although the military development strategically has been subordinated the economic rise it is now globally generally accepted that China has to be considered the world´s number two military power. What are the strategic objectives for building up its military to this exceptional position?

In what way – if at all – is China strategically threatened and in what way is China’s new military strength conceived by countries in the Great-Asia region as an important part of a general perception of an increasing Chinese overall superiority, which is manifested in a “China Threat notion.”

One central aim of the panel is to identify the strategic intentions, including strategic culture, and strategic moves of China and of the countries involved i.e. the countries from the Great-Asia, including the United States. The panel will deal with all kind of traditional and non-traditional areas of threat, e.g. space, cyber, artificial intelligence, terrorism, future weapons, “third offset”-initiatives, espionage etc.

The panel will try to discuss and initiate a project of the coming role of the Chinese armed forces regionally and globally, aiming at a publication with rather short chapters with sharp and critical arguments, emphasizing the policy implications.

Download abstracts here (pdf)