ABSTRACT
Beijing may tout its continued military buildup as part of its "peaceful rise" or "peaceful development", but reactions outside of China have been anything but sanguine. There is genuine concern throughout the Asia and the Pacific Rim that this expansion of military power is a prelude to a more aggressively assertive China and one that is prepared to use its growing armed might to press its national interests and back up its various geopolitical claims. Liberalism and constructivism, for instance, point to the strength of international institutions and norms as sufficient constraints on rising powers such as China, which over time will change and adapt lest its aggressiveness invites counter-force and becomes detrimental to its own self interests. China's emergence as an economic, geopolitical, and perhaps even cultural great power is inevitable. Its military rise is probably equally inexorable.
