China's army is getting smarter in both bombs, and crucially, brains. Worrying news for politicians and planners from Delhi to Washington fearing China's growing military might, but probably good news for the unfortunates depending upon undermanned international peacekeeping missions.
Chinese generals are tight-lipped about deployments and capabilities of new weapons they are buying with China's $43 billion defence budget in 2007. Pentagon analysts reckon the true figure is a few times higher. China says spending is rising to bring an obsolete military up to scratch. Defence officials elsewhere however fret China is in fact building a force to conduct long-range, long-term operations, arguably for the first time since Admiral Zheng He returned from the last of his naval expeditions to the Indian Ocean in the 15th century.
China has however loosened lips a little over the army's growing brainpower. "Because the army is trying to equip itself with advanced weapons and equipment, the quality and knowledge of soldiers has become correspondingly higher. . . . In the 1980s, primary school graduates could join the army. But now, no way," Li Shengqiang, an army recruiter in Beijing told the Washington Post in December.
This effort to multiply the military's force with greater brainpower has been gathering momentum since the turn of the century. In 1999, conscription was cut from four to two years. The following year Jiang Zemin, president and overall military commander at the time, was urging the use of civilian institutions to educate officers.
In 2003, the military began a 'strategic project for talented people' to produce officers to develop and lead troops armed with high-technology weapons and foreign languages on the physical and cyber battlefields. The push for brainpower is turning recruiting efforts towards college students and encouraging promising conscripts to stay on as non-commissioned officers. A notable change because while Mao Zedong ruled China there were few, if any, ranks in the army.
By 2010, civilian institutions will be educating two-fifths of new naval officers, notes globalsecurity.org. The army, meanwhile, is encouraging frontline officers to earn degrees. Just how much use this education proves remains to be seen. Western firms find most Chinese college graduates strong on theory and knowledge, but struggle with practical application.
Nevertheless, together these initiatives should result in officers with a better understanding of trends affecting military power, moving China towards fielding a military exploiting information and advanced technology to conduct challenging operations overseas. Complementing the degrees and certificates is increasing exposure to equally valuable on-the-job education in faraway places for the cream of the crop. They are assigned to United Nations' peacekeeping operations where they hone skills, observe and learn from other militaries, and pick-up insights into complex political conflicts.
That China is playing a bigger role reflects growing confidence borne of better trained and educated troops. China's peacekeeping effort is small, but growing. In December 2007, 1,824 Chinese were serving on 13 of 17 peacekeeping operations among a total force of 82,541 troops and police, reports the United Nations department of peacekeeping operations. In 2005, there were 1,042 Chinese peacekeepers. Most Chinese personnel serve in Liberia, Sudan, Lebanon, Congo and Haiti. Given the steady, if not rising, demand for peacekeeping operations - the $1.5 billion African Union-United Nations force in Sudan is struggling to raise 19,555 troops - China's growing role is timely.
It is one with scope to grow substantially given China has 2.25 million active personnel. The largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations is China's troubled ally Pakistan, which with 619,000 in military service has assigned 10,610 troops to UN missions. Bangladesh has 9,856 on peacekeeping operations followed by China's strategic-rival India with 9,357, out of a total force of 1.4 million.
Some might say China is not pulling its weight. On the other hand, peacekeepers are paid for by China's rising contributions to the UN's budget. The UN allots $1,100 per month for each peacekeeper, substantially more than the monthly salary of most Third World soldiers. If China is subsidising foreign armies, rivals and allies alike, it may as well send its troops to do the job. Western powers, like America, might be doing more were their forces not tied up in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. Then again, it might be said China is focused on quality not quantity. It sends only the best troops, who it seems usually pass themselves off with aplomb in the eyes of foreign diplomats, generals and journalists.
In giving a good account of themselves, peacekeepers help out with public diplomacy and burnish China's self-proclaimed credentials as a peaceful, responsible rising power. If other nations took such missions as seriously, there might be less instances of UN troops abusing civilians and getting involved in local scams, not unlike those involving Pakistani troops in recent past.
These operations, which require militaries to work hand-in-glove, may also play a small role in easing international tensions and suspicions by building confidence between the generals and sergeants of China and other armies. That surely is a good thing, for it may ease suspicion in some quarters and engender some trust and a greater willingness among military commanders on all sides to counsel politicians to talk rather than shoot should disputes arise.
Questions will persist about China's true intent while a rising regional power with a passion for secrecy in a multipolar world. To some, China's willingness to deploy troops to UN missions in Africa is about nurturing diplomatic ties and to lock-up minerals. That may be so, although international power politics are not known for free lunches and altruism. On the other hand, it would be a little odd if Chinese troops did not don blue helmets to serve in Africa, where the UN faces its biggest challenges.
Growing self-interest suggests China has little choice but to play a larger part supporting peace and disaster operations that help prop up security, which provides the handsome benefits of international peace, stability and trade. Such order allows China the freedom to focus less resources on security than might otherwise be the case and more on developing the economic power which underlies its rise, and begets an emerging peacekeeping power.