Impact of COVID -19 on Defence spending in China: military burden or peacekeeping facilitation?
DOI: 10.54647/economics79326 93 Downloads 4477 Views
Author(s)
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed the world as we knew it. Although it is still unclear how the economic landscape post COVID-19 and recovery from ‘the great lockdown’ will look like, the pandemic has affected societies and economies in their core: global GDP shrank approximately 3% in 2021 and is predicted to fall further by at least 4% in 2022 increasing poverty and global inequalities (IMF, 2022); total military expenditure increased worldwide by 2.6% in 2020 (SIPRI, 2021); security threats with immediate impact on Peaceland’s[ Autesserre (2014) uses Peaceland to describe the community of foreign organizations, such as the UN and NGOs, engaged in peacekeeping and peacebuilding.] operations.
As the COVID-19 pandemic showed some signs of abating, China’s defence spending, which was the centre of the virus, was approximately $252 billion in 2020 (an increase of 1.9% since 2019 and 76% since 2011). Worth noting, that, China provided $26,666,716 financial support to the U.N. COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan. This article takes a closer look at the basic arguments regarding the increased Chinese defence spending during the period 2020-21 by contacting a narrative literature review. The current review is useful in obtaining a broad perspective on China’s defence spending during the COVID -19 pandemic and its role to peacekeeping, in order to have a more balanced understanding of its rational.
Keywords
defence spending, pandemic, COVID-19, military expenditure
Cite this paper
Ourania Dimitraki,
Impact of COVID -19 on Defence spending in China: military burden or peacekeeping facilitation?
, SCIREA Journal of Economics.
Volume 7, Issue 4, August 2022 | PP. 137-161.
10.54647/economics79326
References
[ 1 ] | Ahmed, T., Shoukat, Ali, S., Shahid, Mirza, S., Rahman, W., & Hasan, A. 2020. Face-Off Between India and China in Galwan Valley: An Analysis of Chinese Incursions and Interests. Electronic Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 2(III). 38-50. |
[ 2 ] | Andersen-Rogers, D. & Crawford, K. 2018. Human security: Theory and action. Lanham: Rowan and Littlefield Publishing group Inc. |
[ 3 ] | Autesserre, S. 2014. Peaceland. Conflict Resolution and Everyday Politics of International Interventions. New York: Cambridge University Press |
[ 4 ] | Awaworyi Churchill, S., & Yew, S.L. 2018. The effect of military expenditure on growth: an empirical synthesis. Empir Econ. 55, 1357–1387. |
[ 5 ] | Boao Forum for Asia launches ‘Report on the global use of Covid-19 vaccines’ (2021). Available at: |
[ 6 ] | https://english.boaoforum.org/newsDetial.html?navId=3&itemId=0&permissionId=114&detialId=13760 |
[ 7 ] | Bernhard, A. 2020. Covid‐19: What we can learn from wartime efforts. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200430-covid-19-what-we-can-learn-from-wartime-efforts |
[ 8 ] | Beaumier, C.M., Gomez -Rubio, A.M., Hotez, P.J., & Weina, P.J. 2013. United States military tropical medicine: Extraordinary legacy, uncertain future. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 7(12), 1–6. |
[ 9 ] | Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. 2015. On being ‘systematic’ in literature reviews. In Willcocks, L. P ., Sauer, C., & Lacity, M. C. (Eds.), Formulating Research Methods for Information Systems: Volume 2, 48–78. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. |
[ 10 ] | Burton, Guy. 2020 ‘Negative Peace? China’s approach to the Middle East. War on the Rocks. Available at: https://warontherocks.com/2020/09/negative-peace-chinas-approach-to-the-middle-east/ [Accessed on June 24, 2022 |
[ 11 ] | Clark R.A. 2016. Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat - Potentially the biggest survival challenge facing organisations. UK: itgovernance, pp. 32–60. |
[ 12 ] | Centre of Economics and Business Research. Economic Growth. Available at: https://cebr.com/browse-results/?_sft_category=economic-growth (Accessed: June 23, 2022). |
[ 13 ] | Costa Junior, C. J., Garcia-Cintado, A. C., & Junior, K. M. 2021. Macroeconomic policies and the pandemic-driven recession. International Review of Economics & Finance. 72, 438–465. |
[ 14 ] | Cronin, P., Ryan, F., & Coughlan, M. 2008. Undertaking a Literature Review: A Stepby- Step Approach. British Journal of Nursing. 17(1), 38–43. |
[ 15 ] | Dalton, T., & Zhao, T. 2020. At a Crossroads?: China-India Nuclear Relations After the Border Clash. Washington. DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. |
[ 16 ] | Dimitraki, O. & Menla-Ali, F. 2015. The long –run causal relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in China: Revisited. Journal of Defence and Peace Economics. 26 (3), 311-326. |
[ 17 ] | Duchâtel, M. 2021. Scenarios of crisis in the Taiwan strait, Policy Briefs, RSCAS, Global Governance Programme, EU-Asia Project, 2021/27 Retrieved from Cadmus, European University Institute Research Repository, at: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71781 |
[ 18 ] | Dunne, J. P. & Tian, N. (2013). Military expenditure and economic growth: A survey. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal. 8(1), 5-11. |
[ 19 ] | Haynes, S.T., 2016. China’s nuclear threat perceptions. Strategic Studies Quarterly. 10(2), 25-62. |
[ 20 ] | Fung, C., J. 2016. What explains China's deployment to UN peacekeeping operations? International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. 16[3 |
[ 21 ] | Fravel, M.T., 1996. China's attitude toward UN peacekeeping operations since 1989. Asian Survey. 36(11), 1102-1121. |
[ 22 ] | Gibson-Fall, F. 2021. Military responses to COVID-19, emerging trends in global civil-military engagements. Review of International Studies. 47(2), 155-170. |
[ 23 ] | Grant, K. A., Fielding, J. E., Mercer, G. N., Carcione, D., Lopez, L., Smith, D. W., and Kelly, H. A. 2012. Comparison of the pandemic H1N1 2009 experience in the Southern Hemisphere with pandemic expectations. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 36(4), 364–368. |
[ 24 ] | Hilpert, H. G., & Stanzel, A. 2021. China - winning the pandemic... for now: the People's Republic is exuding strength, but can they keep it up? (SWP Comment, 1/2021). Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik -SWP- Deutsches Institut für Internationale Politik und Sicherheit. |
[ 25 ] | IFRI (2021). Collective collapse or Resilience? European Defense Priorities in the Pandemic Era. Edited by C. Brustlein. Focus stratégique, No. 103. |
[ 26 ] | International Monetary Fund. 2020. World Economic Outlook: The Great Lockdown. Washington, DC: IMF. |
[ 27 ] | International Monetary Fund. 2022. World Economic Outlook. Washington, DC: IMF. |
[ 28 ] | International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) 2021. Military Capabilities- People’s Republic of China, in The Military Balance 2021, ed. John Chipman. London: Routledge. |
[ 29 ] | International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) 2020. Defence spending and plans: will the pandemic take its toll?, available at: https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2020/04/defence-spending-coronavirus (Accessed: February 3, 2022). |
[ 30 ] | Institute for Economics & Peace. COVID-19 and Peace, Sydney, June 2020. Available from: http://visionofhumanity.org/reports (accessed 25/06/2021). |
[ 31 ] | Kadim EN, Abbas AH. COVID-19 and the irony of military expenditures: non-verbal semiotic discourse study. Heliyon. 2022;8(4):e09324. |
[ 32 ] | Kalkman, J.P., 2021. Military crisis responses to COVID‐19. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. 29(1), 99-103. |
[ 33 ] | Kaura V. 2020. India’s Relations with China from the Doklam Crisis to the Galwan Tragedy. India Quarterly. 76(4), 501-518. |
[ 34 ] | Kennedy J, McCoy D, Abouzeid M, & Jabbour S. 2019. Militaries and global health. Lancet. 394(10202), 916-917. |
[ 35 ] | Lei, Z. 2011. Two Pillars of China’s Global Peace Engagement Strategy: UN Peacekeeping and International Peacebuilding. International Peacekeeping. 18 (3): 344-62. |
[ 36 ] | Lei, Z. (2020, April 25). PLA sends medical aid to neighbours. China Daily. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202004/25/WS5ea3eadaa310a8b2411518c4.html (Accessed: February 15, 2022). |
[ 37 ] | Li, G. 2011. China’s military in 2020. Editor(s): Kerry Brown, In Chandos Asian Studies Series, China 2020, Chandos Publishing, Pages 77-112. |
[ 38 ] | Liff, A., & Erickson, A. 2013. Demystifying China's Defence Spending: Less Mysterious in the Aggregate. The China Quarterly, 216, 805-830. |
[ 39 ] | Mearsheimer, J., J. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. London: WW Norton. |
[ 40 ] | Menla-Ali, F. & Dimitraki, O. 2014. Military spending and economic growth in China: a regime-switching analysis. Applied Economics. 46 (28), 3408-3420. |
[ 41 ] | Meyer, C.O, Bricknell, M., and Pacheco, P. 2020. How the COVID-19 Crisis Has Affected Security and Defence-related Aspects for the EU. Belgium: European Parliament. |
[ 42 ] | Michaud, J., Moss, K., Licina, D., Waldman, R., Kamradt-Scott, A., Bartee, M., Lim, M., Williamson, J., Burkle, F., Polyak, C.S. & Thomson, N., 2019. Militaries and global health: peace, conflict, and disaster response. The Lancet. 393(10168), 276-286. |
[ 43 ] | Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China, 2019. China’s National Defense in the New Era July. available at: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/publications/2019-07/24/content_4846452.htm (Accessed: February 15, 2022). |
[ 44 ] | Mir, W. 2019. Financing UN Peacekeeping: Avoiding another Crisis. International Peace Institute |
[ 45 ] | Mulder, N. (2020). The Coronavirus War Economy Will Change the World. Foreign Policy, 26. |
[ 46 ] | Padhan, R. & Prabheesh, K.P., 2021. The economics of COVID-19 pandemic: A survey. Economic Analysis and Policy, 70, pp.220-237. |
[ 47 ] | Phillips, B., J. (2015). Civil war, spillover and neighbours’ military spending. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 32 (4), 425-442. |
[ 48 ] | Pinkus, G., & Ramaswamy, S. 2020. The ‘war’ on COVID-19: What real wars do (and don’t) teach us about the economic impact of the pandemic. McKinsey Global Institute, (14), 6. |
[ 49 ] | Rahmati, F., Ali, M. A., & Kamraju, M. 2020. A study on India -China current geopolitical issues and implications. International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management (IJSREM), 4(6), 1–10. |
[ 50 ] | Ricciardi, V. (2004). A Risk Perception Primer: A Narrative Research Review of the Risk Perception Literature in Behavioral Accounting and Behavioral Finance. SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 566802. |
[ 51 ] | Shameer M. (2017). Power Maximisation And State Security. World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, 21(2), 10-21. |
[ 52 ] | Sharma, A. K., & Kumar, S. (2010). Economic Value Added (EVA)—Literature Review and Relevant Issues. International Journal of Economics and Finance. 2(2), 200-220. |
[ 53 ] | SIPRI Yearbook 2021: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. Oxford : Oxford University Press. |
[ 54 ] | Smith, N. R., & Fallon, T. 2020. An epochal moment? The COVID-19 pandemic and China’s international order building. World Affairs. 183(3), 235-255. |
[ 55 ] | Sweeney, M. (2001). Why A Taiwan Conflict Could Go Nuclear, Defense Priorities. |
[ 56 ] | Tan, A. T. (ed.). (2020). Research Handbook on the Arms Trade. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. |
[ 57 ] | Tellis, A. J. (2020). Hustling in the Himalayas: The Sino-Indian Border Confrontation. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. |
[ 58 ] | The Economist. How covid-19 gave peace a chance, and nobody took it. May 5th 2020. Available at: https://www.economist.com/international/2020/05/05/how-covid-19-gave-peace-a-chance-and-nobody-took-it (Accessed: June 22, 2022). |
[ 59 ] | The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China. 2020. China's Armed Forces: 30 Years of UN Peacekeeping Operations. White Paper. |
[ 60 ] | Tharakan, S.M. & Salaam-Blyther, T. (2021) Global COVID-19 vaccine distribution (IF 11796; in focus). Congressional Research Service. Available at: https://fas.org/sgp/crs (Accessed: November 18, 2021). |
[ 61 ] | UNDP. 1994 Human development report 1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
[ 62 ] | Younger, M.S. 2000. Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LAUR-00-2850), June 27, 2000 (lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00393603.pdf). |
[ 63 ] | U.N. 2020. Terrorists Capitalize on COVID-19 to Erode State Authority, Attack National, International Forces in Sahel, Peacekeeping Chief Tells Security Council. Available at: https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sc14205.doc.htm (Accessed: June 22, 2022). |
[ 64 ] | Van der Lijn, J. (2022) The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Multilateral Peace Operations. Stockholm: SIPRI. |
[ 65 ] | Walters, J. (2020, March 29). ‘This is a war’: Cuomo warns coronavirus could overwhelm New York healthcare. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/coronavirus-new-york-cuomo-healthcare-overwhelmed-please (Accessed: January 02, 2022). |
[ 66 ] | Waltz, K., N. 1981. The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Be Better: Introduction. The Adelphi Papers. 21 (171), 1-1. |
[ 67 ] | Wang, J., & Wang, Z. (2020). Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis of China's Prevention and Control Strategy for the COVID-19 Epidemic. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(7), 2235. |
[ 68 ] | Wei, L. (2021) China hands over COVID-19 vaccines to UN peacekeepers. China Military Online. Retrieved from: http://eng.mod.gov.cn/news/2021-09/18/content_4895202.htm (Accessed: June 22, 2022). |
[ 69 ] | Wenham C., 2019. The oversecuritization of global health: changing the terms of debate. Int. Aff. 95(5) 1093–1110. |
[ 70 ] | Wuthnow, J., 2020. System overload : can China's military be distracted in a war over Taiwan?, Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs , issuing body, & National Defense University Press. |
[ 71 ] | Wuthnow, J. 2021. A new era for Chinese military logistics. Asian Security (Philadelphia, Pa.), 1–15. |
[ 72 ] | Yetkiner, I. Hakan, 2012. Defense Spending and Economic Growth: A Theoretical Manifestation for Empirical Studies. Working paper 12/02. Izmir University of Economics. |
[ 73 ] | Xinhua (2021) Spotlight: China-proposed initiatives produce tangible results in upholding multilateral cooperation. Retrieved from: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-09/21/c_139384430.htm (Accessed: November 18, 2022). |
[ 74 ] | Yin, H., 2007. China's changing policy on UN peacekeeping operations. Stockholm: Institute for Security and Development Policy, pp. 253-276. |
[ 75 ] | Yin, He, 2017. Developmental peace: a Chinese approach to UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Journal of International studies. 38[4 |
[ 76 ] | Yin, He. China’s Doctrine on UN Peacekeeping, in Cedric de Coning, et al., eds., UN Peacekeeping Doctrine in a New Era, London: Routledge, 2020, pp.109–131. |
[ 77 ] | Zheng, J., C. H. Pan, W. W. Yao, J. B. Mu, & Zhao, X. 2020. Analysis on the current situation and key problems of artificial island development in China. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 510(6), 062012. |
[ 78 ] | Zuk, G., & Woodbury, N. R. 1986. U.S. Defense Spending, Electoral Cycles, and Soviet-American Relations. The Journal of Conflict Resolution. 30(3), 445–468. |