Greitens discusses increases in Chinese security spending
Sam OhIn a public lecture on March 2, Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri and First Lady of Missouri, spoke about increases in security spending in the People’s Republic of China from the late 20th century to present. Greitens is a leading scholar in comparative politics and international relations in East Asia. In a small, densely packed room of professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students, Greitens challenged listeners to look beyond Western media projections of Chinese security spending and truly analyze released statistics. She emphasized the need to depart from media preconceptions about Chinese security spending, as well as the need to carefully analyze what few numerical sources the Chinese government releases to the international community. “The lecture that I am presenting today is focused on China,” Greitens explained, “but is also focused on trying to put some numbers that we often hear from China that we often hear in the media and the press and in the policy world in the cross national perspective and see what this means for China.” Greitens began by rebutting the media-created gloom that appears to surround the rise of China’s security spending.
