Tai Ming Cheung Quoted on PLA's "Reserve Force"
PLA fans: unarmed and maybe dangerous
04/07/2011
Minnie Chan,
The South China Morning Post
Every time 27-year-old Benjamin Xia Peng discusses the relative military strength of China and the United States with like-minded peers from his hometown in Hunan, he feels a strong anti-US sentiment among them.
"As I am older than them and have business experience, I tell them that once you have strong military capabilities, you possess powerful political and economic influence in the world," said the Changsha native, who runs a foreign trading business. "And I told them that's why the United States could force China to let the yuan appreciate, which has cost our country great losses in its investments in US government bonds."
Xia's words have stirred nationalist feelings among his military enthusiast friends. "Almost all young Chinese military enthusiasts are patriots, and our government actually has great power to mobilise them during sensitive moments," he said. "Even me, a moderate enthusiast, dreams of being a militarist who can contribute to China's military renaissance one day."
Xia said his peer groups would become a powerful reserve force to be reckoned with because they were willing to die for the country should a crisis arise.
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Tai Ming Cheung is an associate research scientist at IGCC. He is in charge of the institute’s Minerva project "The Evolving Relationship Between Technology and National Security in China: Innovation, Defense Transformation, and China’s Place in the Global Technology Order." This five-year research and training program examining China’s efforts to become a world-class science and technology power is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
