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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Remember the Soviet Union, top Chinese policy adviser says in warning against blind pursuit of absolute security

  • Overemphasis on absolutes, whether it is defence spending or supply chains, is likely to be self-destructive, key CPPCC member Jia Qingguo says
  • Recent article by Jia, a US affairs specialist, is full of thinly veiled criticisms against hawkish outlooks

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Jia Qingguo, former dean of the international relations school at Peking University, is a key member of China’s top political advisory body. Photo: Weibo
Jun Mai
The pursuit of “absolute national security” can extract a heavy price, a Chinese foreign policy adviser has warned, citing the collapse of the Soviet Union as proof of the pitfalls of putting military expansion over long-term security.

The unfettered pursuit of security “will see the costs go up drastically and the benefits go drastically down, until the costs outweigh the benefits”, according to Jia Qingguo, a former dean of Peking University’s international relations school.

“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,” Jia, who sits on the Standing Committee of China’s top political advisory body – the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – wrote in the latest issue of the bimonthly Journal of International Security Studies.

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In his 22-page article, Jia seeks to present a comprehensive and balanced view of China’s national security strategy. While he opens with paying homage to President Xi Jinping’s general views on national security, the piece is full of thinly veiled criticisms against hawkish outlooks.
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Too much emphasis on defence spending could trigger an arms race making all countries involved less secure, writes Jia, a specialist on US affairs himself.

He then 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.

“The result was the Soviet Union lagged behind in economic development and was not able to support its massive defence spending. People’s lives did not improve for a long time and this caused loss of political support,” he notes.

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