China increases defense budget in 2021 by 6.8%

CHINA increased its 2021 defense budget by 6.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan ($209 billion) in a quicker pace than last year's growth, which analysts believe is normal, steady and restrained as the country resiliently emerges from the wreckage of Covid-19 pandemic.

The budget increase, released in a draft budget report issued at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, on Friday, is slightly higher than the 6.6 percent hike in 2020 when the country and the rest of the world were still struggling to fight the unprecedent Covid-19 pandemic that upended the globe.

China's defense budget for 2020 was 1.27 trillion yuan ($179 billion), up 6.6 percent from 2019. China has maintained a single-digit growth in its annual defense budget since 2016.

The increased defense budget growth rate in 2021 is normal, steady and restrained, considering China's own rightful need to develop its national defense capacity, the recovering economy after the coronavirus was contained on a domestic level, and the military threats China is facing, analysts said.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Friday that the slightly increased growth rate is moderate and reasonable, and the figure 6.8 percent is also in line with the country's GDP growth.

In the Government Work Report delivered at the opening of the annual session of the NPC on Friday, the GDP growth target for 2021 is set at above 6 percent.

It is an objective need for China to further increase its defense budget. From the perspective of military modernization, China still uses many outdated weapons and equipment that are in need of being replaced by new ones, and the development of advanced weaponry, like the construction of the new aircraft carrier and mass-production of the J-20 stealth fighter jet, also requires investment, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Friday.