Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:00:05.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Guns and Butter in China: How Chinese Citizens Respond to Military Spending

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

Han Xiao ,
Michael Sadler  and
Kai Quek
Han Xiao*
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong.
Michael Sadler
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong. Email: mikes@hku.hk.
Kai Quek
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong. Email: quek@hku.hk.
*
Email: xhan1990@hku.hk (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Militaries are sustained by public money that is diverted away from other domestic ends. How the public react to the “guns-versus-butter” trade-off is thus an important question in understanding the microfoundations of Chinese military power. However, there are few studies on public attitudes towards military spending in China, whose rising power has been a grave concern to many policymakers around the world. We fielded a national online survey to investigate the nature of public support for military spending in China. We find that Chinese citizens support military spending in the abstract, but their support diminishes when considered alongside other domestic spending priorities. We also find that public support for military spending coexists surprisingly with anti-war sentiments and a significant strain of isolationism. In addition, while the conventional wisdom suggests that nationalism moves a state towards bellicosity and war, we find that Chinese citizens with a stronger sense of national pride report stronger anti-war sentiments than other citizens.

中文摘要

中文摘要

维持军队将会挤占用于实现其他内政目标的公共资金。因此，理解中国公众对 “大炮与黄油” 这一对矛盾的态度，是理解中国军事实力微观基础的一大课题。然而，只有少数研究涉及中国的公众舆论如何看待军费开支，而中国日益上升的实力正成为全世界许多政策制定者们严重关切的课题。本文通过一项全国性的网络调查，探究了中国公众对于国家军费开支的态度。我们发现，中国公民支持增加军费开支；但是当军费开支与其他内政目标相比时，公众对军费开支的支持就会减少。出乎意料的是，公众对于军费开支的支持与反战情绪和强烈的孤立主义情绪共同存在。不仅如此，传统观点认为，民族主义高涨会使一个国家变得更为好战；与之相悖，我们的研究结果却显示，越是以国家为荣的中国公民，反战意识越是强烈。

Keywords

Chinamilitary spendingsurveyguns-versus-butternationalismforeign policy中国军费开支调查大炮与黄油民族主义外交政策
Type
Research Report
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 245 , March 2021 , pp. 248 - 261
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

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

ANES (American National Election Studies). 2012. ANES 2012 Time Series Study. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35157.v1. Accessed 1 October 2016.Google Scholar
Bai, Chong-En, and Zhang, Qiong. 2017. “Is the People's Republic of China's current slowdown a cyclical downturn or a long-term trend? A productivity-based analysis.” Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 22(1), 29–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boussios, Emanuel G., and Cole, Stephen. 2010. “Americans’ attitudes toward war: trend analysis of public opinion for the Iraq War.” Journal of Applied Security Research 5(2), 208–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brutger, Ryan, and Kertzer, Joshua. 2018. “A dispositional theory of reputation costs.” International Organization 72(3), 693–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Bruce A. 2005. “Spanning the racial divide in American public opinion: post-September 11.” Politics and Policy 33(1), 94–112.10.1111/j.1747-1346.2005.tb00210.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Linchait, and Krosnick, Jon. 2010. “Comparing oral interviewing with self-administered computerized questionnaires: an experiment.” Public Opinion Quarterly 74(1), 154–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chinese Internet Network Information Center. 2017. “The 38th statistical report on internet development,” https://cnnic.com.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201706/P020170608523740585924.pdf. Accessed 27 September 2018.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela Johnston, and Sapiro, Virginia. 1993. “Gender, feminist consciousness, and war.” American Journal of Political Science 37(4), 1079–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John. 2013. “Introduction to the special section on authoritarianism in societal context: the role of threat.” International Journal of Psychology 48(1), 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eichenberg, Richard, and Stoll, Richard. 2012. “Gender difference or parallel publics? The dynamics of defense spending opinions in the United States, 1965–2007.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 56(2), 331–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Andrew S., and Liff, Adam P.. 2016. “The limits of growth: economic headwinds inform China's latest military budget.” The Wall Street Journal, 5 March, https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/03/05/the-limits-of-growth-economic-headwinds-inform-chinas-latest-military-budget/. Accessed 8 October 2018.Google Scholar
Fewsmith, Joseph, and Rosen, Stanley. 2001. “The domestic context of Chinese foreign policy: does ‘public opinion’ matter?” In Lampton, David M. (eds.), The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 151–187.Google Scholar
Fitzsimmons, Scott, Craigie, Allan and Bodet, Marc André. 2014. “Canadian public opinion about the military: assessing the influences on attitudes toward defence spending and participation in overseas combat operations.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 47(3), 503–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goertzel, Ted. 1987. “Public opinion concerning military spending in the United States: 1937–1985.” Journal of Political and Military Sociology 15(1), 61–72.Google Scholar
Gries, Peter Hays, Zhang, Qingmin, Michael Crowson, H. and Cai, Huajian. 2011. “Patriotism, nationalism and China's US policy: structures and consequences of Chinese national identity.” The China Quarterly 205, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, Donglin, and Zweig, David. 2010. “Images of the world: studying abroad and Chinese attitudes towards international affairs.” The China Quarterly 202, 290–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Haifeng. 2015. “International knowledge and domestic evaluations in a changing society: the case of China.” American Political Science Review 109(3), 613–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 2004. “Chinese middle class attitudes towards international affairs: nascent liberalization?” The China Quarterly 179, 603–628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 2017. “Is Chinese nationalism rising? Evidence from Beijing.” International Security 41(3), 7–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John, Banaji, Mahzarin and Nosek, Brian. 2004. “A decade of system justification theory: accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo.” Political Psychology 25(6), 881–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John, Glaser, Jack, Kruglanski, Arie and Sulloway, Frank. 2003. “Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.” Psychological Bulletin 129(3), 339–375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kertzer, Joshua, and Brutger, Ryan. 2016. “Decomposing audience costs: bringing the audience back into audience cost theory.” American Journal of Political Science 60(1), 234–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret. 2014. “Reverse-engineering censorship in China: randomized experimentation and participant observation.” Science 345(6199), 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kosterman, Rick, and Feshbach, Seymour. 1989. “Toward a measure of patriotic and nationalistic attitudes.” Political Psychology 10(2), 257–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesberg, Louis, and Klein, Ross. 1980. “Changes in support for US military spending.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 24(1), 79–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krolikowski, Alanna. 2017. “Brittle China? Economic and political fragility with global implications.” Global Policy 8, 42–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, David. 2005. “American public opinion toward the military: differences by race, gender, and class?” Armed Forces and Society 32(1), 123–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Xiaojun, Wang, Jianwei and Chen, Dingding. 2016. “Chinese citizens’ trust in Japan and South Korea: findings from a four-city survey.” International Studies Quarterly 60(4), 778–789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liff, Adam P., and Erickson, Andrew S.. 2013. “Demystifying China's defence spending: less mysterious in the aggregate.” The China Quarterly 216, 805–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, Yunjuan. 2014. “The internet and agenda setting in China: the influence of online public opinion on media coverage and government policy.” International Journal of Communication 8, 1289–1312.Google Scholar
Pettis, Michael. 2015. “Distortions in the balance sheet matter to China's growth.” Asia Policy 20(1), 148–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posen, Barry R. 1993. “Nationalism, the mass army, and military power.” International Security 18(2), 80–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quek, Kai, and Johnston, Alastair Iain. 2018. “Can China back down? Crisis de-escalation in the shadow of popular opposition.” International Security 42(3), 7–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rallings, Colin, Thrasher, Michael and Moon, Nick. 1992. “British public opinion during the Gulf War.” Contemporary British History 6(2), 376–388.Google Scholar
Reilly, James. 2012. Strong Society, Smart State: The Rise of Public Opinion in China's Japan Policy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Reilly, James. 2014. “A wave to worry about? Public opinion, foreign policy and China's anti-Japan protests.” Journal of Contemporary China 23(86), 197–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirk, Susan. 2007. China: Fragile Superpower. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shirk, Susan. 2014. “The domestic context of Chinese foreign security policies.” In Pekkanen, Saadia, Ravenhill, John and Foot, Rosemary (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 391–410.Google Scholar
Simon, Christopher, and Lovrich, Nicholas. 2010. “Citizen support for military expenditures: a longitudinal analysis of US public opinion, 1999–2002.” Armed Forces and Society 36(3), 454–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinkkonen, Elina. 2013. “Nationalism, patriotism and foreign policy attitudes among Chinese university students.” The China Quarterly 216, 1045–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomz, Michael. 2007. “Domestic audience costs in international relations: an experimental approach.” International Organization 61(4), 821–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomz, Michael, and Weeks, Jessica L.P.. 2013. “Public opinion and the democratic peace.” American Political Science Review 107(4), 849–865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1994. “Hypotheses on nationalism and war.” International Security 18(4), 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Xiaobing, Liu, Chengfang, Zhang, Linxiu, Shi, Yaojiang and Rozelle, Scott. 2013. “College is a rich, Han, urban, male club: research notes from a census survey of four tier one colleges in China.” The China Quarterly 214, 456–470.Google Scholar
Weiss, Jessica Chen, . 2013. “Authoritarian signaling, mass audiences, and nationalist protest in China.” International Organization 67(1), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Jessica Chen. 2019. “How hawkish is the Chinese public? Another look at ‘rising nationalism’ and Chinese foreign policy.” Journal of Contemporary China, https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2019.1580427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Jessica Chen, and Dafoe, Allan. 2019. “Authoritarian audiences, rhetoric, and propaganda in international crises: evidence from China.” International Studies Quarterly 63(4), 963–973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, Qiang. 2007. “The internet: a force to transform Chinese society?” In Jensen, L.M. and Weston, T.B. (eds.), China's Transformations: The Stories beyond the Headlines. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 129–143.Google Scholar
Zhao, Suisheng. 2013. “Foreign policy implications of Chinese nationalism revisited: the strident turn.” Journal of Contemporary China 22(82), 535–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Han et al. supplementary material

Online Appendices

Download Han et al. supplementary material(File)
File 105.5 KB