The Boogeyman Books and Fear Sells

Out of curiosity, I crawled Amazon looking for books bashing China. The first one was Americas Coming War with China, published in 2006.

Martin Sieff, the National Security Correspondent for UPI had this to say, “America’s Coming War with China is a thoughtful, even-toned, deeply disturbing book. Ted Galen Carpenter has long been one of the wisest, most far-seeing foreign policy voices in Washington. His quiet, careful documentation of an on-rushing, potentially catastrophic confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan, which can still be avoided, but may not be, is far more troubling than the hysterical claims from other sources that brand China as an inevitable, mortal enemy of the United States. This is clearly one of the most important books on U.S. foreign policy in years. It is essential reading for everyone who cares about the peace of the world.”

Now, a dose of reality. China has more troops in uniform but look at the weapons.

America’s military expenditures for 2009 were almost 700 billion (4.3% of GDP) and China spent less than 100 billion (2.0% of GDP).

Not counting Afghanistan and Iraq, there are about 100,000 US troops in Asia, 40,000 in South Korea, and more bases in countries that ring China like Japan. Source: Global Research

The US has 11 aircraft carriers and 1,559 navy ships
China has 1 aircraft carrier with 760 navy ships

China has about 240 nuclear warheads
The US has more than 5,000 active with another 4,500 retired

The US has 18,000 military aircraft
China has 1,900. Source: Global Firepower

Here are a few other titles to help stay awake and afraid in the dark.

  • Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States, 2006
  • The Coming Conflict with China, 1998
  • Red Dragon Rising, 2002
  • Hegemon, China’s Plan to Dominate Asia and the World, 2000

See When the Generals Laughed

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse,
Award winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

Sign up for an RSS Feed for iLook China

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 08:00 and is filed under America, China, military spending, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments are welcome — pro or con. However, comments must focus on the topic of the post, be civil and avoid ad hominem attacks.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.