China ‘likely’ to increase defense budget

As China continues to push forward its military reform to achieve modernization in an unpredictable and volatile international security environment, the country is likely to see a steady increase in its defense budget in 2019 to about 1.2 trillion yuan ($179 billion), Chinese military experts said Monday.

The figure is expected to be released at China’s annual two sessions in early March. It is reasonable for China to increase its defense budget as its economy grows, analysts said.

Constant increases in the defense budget are beneficial to maintaining the combat capability of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by modernizing its weapons and equipment, a military expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Monday, noting a stable 8-9 percent increase from 2018 would be a reasonable prediction.

Echoing the expert, Wei Dongxu, a Beijingbased military analyst, told the Global

Times that China’s 2019 defense budget will be around 1.2 trillion yuan, and the increase will not likely exceed 10 percent.

The 2018 defense budget was 1.11 trillion yuan, an 8.1 percent increase over 2017’s, the Xinhua News Agency reported in March 2018.

The increase went mainly to the development of weaponry and equipment, the improvement of training conditions, military reform and troop salaries and benefits, the PLA Daily reported then.

The same will also apply to 2019, analysts said. China still has much catching-up to do in terms of weapons and technologies, because Chinese weapons were less advanced in the past, Wei said.

Maintaining in-service weapons can also be costly, Wei said, citing a second aircraft carrier in the PLA Navy this year to take care of.

The anonymous expert said that the military reform has led to more frequent training to boost combat capability. Munitions and fuel also require funding.