Wu Guangqiang jw368@163.com WHILE delivering a speech on Sept. 3 in Beijing at a gathering to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of Word War II, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China would cut the number of its troops by 300,000, making it the country’s fourth cut in troops since the reform and opening-up period of the 1980s. The previous downsizing bouts saw 1.039 million troops cut between 1985 and 1987, 500,000 between 1997 and 2000, and between 2003 and 2005, a third cut of 200,000 brought the country’s total number of troops to 2.3 million, proportionally the smallest China’s army has ever been. Going even further back, this is the 11th time China has shrunk its military since 1951, when it reduced troop numbers from 6 million to 2 million. Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun gave a detailed plan for the reduction: the downsizing is aimed at optimizing the military structure, making the armed forces more efficient. It will be carried out among old and outdated units, administrative departments and noncombat troops. “The announcement shows that China continues to uphold the banner of peace, development and cooperation. China constantly sticks to a path of peaceful development and a defensive policy and is a force to maintain regional peace and stability,” Yang said. The fact that China unveiled the new reduction in its military size at the massive parade of advanced weapons and equipment has sent a clear message to the outside world: as a victim of foreign invaders, China knows well that only by boasting a powerful military force can national security be guaranteed, and that a militarily strong China will never be a threat to any peace-loving nation. Of course, even after the reduction, China’s military force will remain the world’s largest standing military, but given China’s vast territory and long land and sea borders, the military size is in proportion to the country’s size. Advances in technology have reduced the need for large numbers of troops, and it is predictable that China’s military force will become slimmer and more efficient with the introduction of more advanced weaponry. Amid a generally positive global response to China’s latest troop cut, some Western media outlets’ comments were, as always, picky and sarcastic. They argued that the reduction “might not be sufficient to placate neighboring countries.” Some even went further by claiming that the cut, which was chiefly aimed at downsizing the army, would promote the modernization of Chinese armed forces and hence bring “fears” to the outside world. Anyway, in the eyes of those biased and arrogant media outlets, whatever China does is negative, if not wicked. China has repeatedly pledged to adhere to peaceful development and to never seek hegemony or inflict the tragedies it suffered in the past upon others, but it is seen just as “a sign of peace” by Western powers that have been accustomed to expanding their power by force and coercion. They think all others act in the same way they have. Throughout history, China was plagued with constant wars — either civil wars or aggressive wars launched by foreign troops. A series of wars in modern times, including the First and Second Opium Wars in the late Qing Dynasty, the wars among warlords in the early 1900s, the Japanese invasion between the late 1930s and mid-1940s, and the Civil War between 1945 and 1949, brought devastating damage to the nation and untold suffering to the people. As President Xi pointed out, “The experience of war makes people value peace even more.” He also repeatedly quoted the old Chinese saying that any belligerent country will fail no matter how powerful it may be. China will not be so stupid as to sink into a war quagmire as the almighty U.S. did in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan because it understands that even a medium-sized war could deplete a nation’s wealth. But China also knows that the best way to avoid war is to possess an armed force strong enough to deter any potential enemy. (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.) | 