Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:52:16.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Low Levels of Military Threat and High Demand for Increasing Military Spending: The ‘Puzzle of Chinese Students’ Data in the Asian Student Survey of 2008

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2015

EITAN OREN
EITAN OREN*
Affiliation:
Ph.D. Candidate at the University of [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines perceptions of military and defense expenditure as held by Asian students. By using quantitative data from the Asian Student Survey1 of 2008 it addresses the following questions: to which areas would Asian students like to see their government allocate more or less resources and, specifically, how supportive of defense and military spending are Asian students. This study finds that data concerning one country have appeared deviant. While designating the strongest will to increase defense and military spending among all countries sampled in the survey, Chinese students from leading universities (N = 800; Pekin and Renmin universities in Beijing; Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong university) also exhibit the lowest levels of perceived military threats. The rest of the paper explores the ‘puzzle’ of Chinese students by generating and testing a null hypothesis. In it, Chinese students' high demand for military spending is associated with an aggressive design, whereby anti-foreign, unilateral, and nationalist sentiments coincide. After refuting the null hypothesis, the paper advances an alternative explanation that links students' inclination with the call to modernize the People's Liberation Army.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 248 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cao.go.jp (2013), ‘Survey: Japan's Relations with Various Countries’, 26 November 2012, http://www8.cao.go.jp/survey/index-gai.html (accessed 27 March 2013).Google Scholar
Chang, Maria Hsia (2000), Return of the Dragon: China's Wounded Nationalism, Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Chen, Jie (2001), ‘Urban Chinese Perceptions of Threats from the United States and Japan’, The Public Opinion Quarterly, 65 (2): 254–66.Google Scholar
China Daily (2005), ‘China's Peaceful Development Road’, State Council Information Office.Google Scholar
Christiansen, B. (1959), Attitudes towards Foreign Affairs as a Function of Personality, Oslo, Norway: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. (1973), The Mathematics of Collective Action, London: Heinemann & Coleman.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. (1990), Foundations of Social Theory, Cambridge: Belknap.Google Scholar
Elster, J. (1986), Rational Choice, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Aaron L. (1993 /94), ‘Ripe for Rivalry – Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia’, International Security, 18 (3): 5–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedberg, Aaron L. (2011), ‘China's Challenge at Sea’, The New York Times, 4 September 2011 (accessed 11 April 2013).Google Scholar
Friedman, Edward (1997), ‘Chinese Nationalism, Taiwan Autonomy and the Prospects of a Larger War’, Journal of Contemporary China, 6 (14): 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Edward (2006), ‘China's Dilemma on Using Military Force’, in Friedman, Edward (ed.), China's Rise: Taiwan's Dilemmas, and International Peace, London: New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gamson, W. A. and Modigliani, A. (1966), ‘Knowledge and Foreign Policy Opinions: Some Models for Consideration’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 30: 187–99.Google Scholar
Gries, Peter Hays, Zhang, Qingmin, Masui, Yasuki and Wook Lee, Yong (2009), ‘Historical Beliefs and the Perception of Threat in Northeast Asia: Colonialism, the Tributary System, and China–Japan–Korea Relations in the Twenty-First Century’, International Relations of the Asia Pacific, 9 (2): 245–65.Google Scholar
Hamilton, R. (1968), ‘A Research Note on the Mass Support for Tough Military Initiatives’, American Sociological Review, 33: 439–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofstetter, C. R. and Moore, D. W. (1979), ‘Watching TV News and Supporting the Military’, Armed Forces and Society, 5 (2): 261–9.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. (1991), ‘America's Changing Strategic Interests’, Survival, 33 (1): 3–17.Google Scholar
ISN Security Watch (2013), ‘The Real Reason behind China's Military Expansion’, 3 October 2013, http://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Asia/The-Real-Reason-Behind-Chinas-Military-Expansion.html (accessed 25 November 2013).Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. (2009), Power, the State, and Sovereignty: Essays on International Relations, London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kriesberg, Louis and Klein, Ross (1980), ‘Changes in Public Support for US Military Spending’, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 24 (1): 79–111.Google Scholar
Ladd, E. Jr (1978), ‘The New Lines Are Drawn: Class and Ideology in America’, Public Opinions (July/August): 48–53.Google Scholar
Logan, David (2013), ‘China's “Mystery Warriors”’, The Diplomat, 13 November 2013, http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/chinas-mystery-warriors/1/ (accessed 2 December 2013).Google Scholar
Oren, Eitan (2014), ‘Explaining Government Spending on the Military and Defense in the Asian Barometer Survey’.Google Scholar
Phillips, N. E. (1973), ‘Militarism and Grass-roots Involvement in the Military-Industrial Complex’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 17 (December): 625–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reilly, J. E. (1979), ‘The American Mood: A Foreign Policy of Self-Interest’, Foreign Policy, 34 (Spring): 74–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reuters (2011), ‘China defense budget to stir regional disquiet’, 4 March 2011 (accessed 10 April 2013), http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/04/us-china-defence-idUSTRE7230ZN20110304.Google Scholar
Scott, W. A. (1960), ‘International Ideology and Interpersonal Ideology’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 24: 419–35.Google Scholar
Shirk, Susan L. (2007), China - Fragile Superpower, Oxford: University Press.Google Scholar
The New York Times (2011), ‘US Official Warns About China's Military Buildup’, The New York Times, 25 August 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/world/25military.html (accessed 10 April 2013).Google Scholar
US Department of Defense (2011), Annual Report to Congress – Military and Security Development Involving the People's Republic of China 2011, http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2011_CMPR_Final.pdf.Google Scholar
Yu, Gouming (1998), ‘Zhonggou ren yanzhong de riben he qita goujia: Zhonggou gongzhong dui riben ji qita goujia yinxiang de daocha fenxi baogao’ [Japan and Other Countries in the Eyes of the Chinese People: Surveys of the Chinese Public's Images of Japan and Other Countries], International News Media (January): 21–31.Google Scholar
Zhao, Dingxin (2003), ‘Nationalism and Authoritarianism: Student-Government Conflicts during the 1999 Beijing Student Protests’, Asian Perspective, 27 (1): 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, Suisheng (1998), ‘A State-led Nationalism: The Patriotic Education Campaign in Post-Tiananmen China’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 31 (3): 287–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, Bijian (2005), ‘China's “Peaceful Rise” to Great-Power Status’, Foreign Affairs, 84 (5): 18–24.Google Scholar