Abstract
Population ageing has long been perceived as a domestic socioeconomic issue that places a growing burden on government budgets. This has led to a prevailing argument in the literature that ageing-induced financial strain would consequently lead to a crowding-out effect on military expenditures. However, this article challenges the notion by arguing that population ageing in China is securitized by the government as a threat to national security on three dimensions: military, regime, and structural security. As a result, population ageing eventually exerts a crowding-in effect on military spending in China. To explore this mechanism, this article departs from a ‘butter-versus-guns’ paradigm and instead adopts a security framework, using primarily Chinese-language sources to explore the impact of population ageing on active-duty personnel, demobilized servicemen, and prospective soldiers.
Published Version
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