China planning to hike defense spending by more than 7% to $229B
BEIJING — China on Saturday announced a 7.1% increase in defense spending in 2022 to $229 billion, continuing years of robust spending on its increasingly powerful military that is challenging the U.S. armed forces’ dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.
China has the world’s second-largest defense budget after the U.S., allowing it to maintain the largest standing military, with 3 million personnel and an arsenal of advanced weaponry, including two aircraft carriers with more on the way, stealth fighters, an advanced missile force and nuclear-powered submarines.
This year’s increase exceeds the 6.8% boost from last year, showing China’s determination to maintain the drive to expand and modernize its armed forces despite high levels of government debt and a slowing economy, partly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
By contrast, the U.S. increased defense spending by 2% this year to $768.2 billion.
The Chinese government says most of the spending increases will go toward improving welfare for troops. Observers say the budget omits much of China’s spending on weaponry, most of which is developed domestically.
The People’s Liberation Army exercises a strong political role as the military branch of the ruling Communist Party, overseen by President and party leader Xi Jinping, who heads the party and government armed forces commissions.
The military is largely designed to maintain its threat to use force to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control, although it has also grown more assertive in the South China Sea, the western Pacific, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere.
In his address to Saturday’s opening session of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang said China would “fully implement Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the armed forces and the military strategy for the new era ... and strengthen party leadership and party building in all aspects of the military.”
Li indicated no change in China’s approach to Taiwan, which it threatens to annex by force if necessary.
NKorea missile launch:
North Korea on Saturday fired a ballistic missile into the sea, according to its neighbors’ militaries, extending Pyongyang’s streak of weapons tests this year amid a prolonged freeze in nuclear negotiations with the United States.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile fired from an area near the North Korean capital flew 168 miles eastward at a maximum altitude of 348 miles before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It said U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials were closely analyzing the launch.
The launch was North Korea’s ninth round of weapons tests in 2022.
The flight details matched an earlier assessment by the Japanese military.
Taliban minister appears:
The Taliban acting interior minister — designated a terrorist by the U.S. — said in a rare public appearance Saturday that security police guilty of misconduct in Afghanistan were being
penalized after a string of abuse allegations.
For the first time, photos showing Sirajuddin Haqqani’s face were published by official Taliban government channels. That contrasted with an October appearance, when photos of the influential and reserved figure were blurred.
Haqqani was photographed attending the Saturday graduation ceremony of the first class to complete police training since the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan. Around 377 personnel, both male and female, graduated.
The event marked the first time Haqqani has given statements to the media since being named interior minister.
Myanmar’s revocation:
Myanmar’s ruling military council has announced the revocation of the citizenship of top members of the main group coordinating resistance to army rule.
The announcement
broadcast on state-run television Friday said 11 leaders of the opposition to military rule have had their citizenship terminated because they had allegedly fled the country and harmed the national interest.
It targeted eight members of the shadow National Unity Government, which views itself as the country’s legitimate ruling authority, and three prominent activists.
The NUG was established by elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power in February 2021, ousting the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Resistance to the takeover has now led to what some U.N. experts have characterized as a civil war.
At least two members of the NUG Cabinet named in the announcement responded on Twitter on Saturday.
Ang Myo Min, the human rights minister who has been traveling in Europe
to seek support for Myanmar’s resistance movement, said the announcement was illegal because the military council is not the legitimate government.
Maki, a ring-tailed lemur who made headlines when he was stolen from the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens in 2020 and then found and returned, has died at the age of 22, the zoo announced Friday.
Maki died on Thursday after suffering from acute kidney disease and advanced age, the zoo said in a statement. The median life expectancy of a ring-tailed lemur is around 16 years.
In October 2020, a thief broke through a locked door leading to the lemur enclosure and took the animal. A day later, a 5-year-old boy spotted Maki in the parking lot of a church preschool in Daly City, about 5 miles from the zoo.
Maki scurried to the school playground and
Noted lemur dies:
took refuge in a miniature playhouse until authorities managed to coax him into a transport cage.
Residents of hundreds of Florida Panhandle homes were evacuated as a wildfire destroyed two houses and damaged 12 others in an area that has spent years recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Michael, officials said Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of downed trees from the 2018 hurricane, along with low humidity and strong winds, have created “the perfect storm” for hazardous fire conditions in Bay County, Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in Panama City.
As of Saturday morning, the 1,500-acre Adkins Avenue Fire was 30% contained, according to the Florida Forest Service.
At least 600 homes had been evacuated as of Saturday morning, but that figure was expected to grow.
Florida wildfire: