China: Defense hike is ‘appropriate,’ ‘reasonable’
BEIJING – Increases in China’s defense budget have been “appropriate and reasonable” and are aimed at meeting “complex security challenges,” a spokesperson for the country’s rubberstamp parliament said Saturday.
Wang Chao gave no indication of whether the rate of increase to be announced Sunday at the opening of the National People’s Congress’s annual session would be above or below last year’s 7.1%.
But he said the defense budget has remained stable as a share of GDP and that China’s military modernization “will not be a threat to any country.”
“On the contrary, it will only be a positive force for safeguarding regional stability and world peace,” Wang told reporters at a news conference.
“The increase in defense spending is needed for meeting the complex security challenges and for China to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country,” he said.
“China’s defense spending ... is lower than the world average and the increase is appropriate and reasonable,” Wang said.
China spent 1.7% of GDP on its military in 2021, according to the World Bank, while the U.S., with its massive overseas obligations, spent a relatively high 3.5%.
China budgeted $229 billion for last year – roughly double the figure from 2013. Consistent annual increases for more than two decades have allowed the 2 million-member People’s Liberation Army to increase its capabilities across all categories.
Along with the world’s biggest standing army, China has the world’s largest navy and recently launched its third aircraft carrier. It boasts a massive stockpile of missiles, along with stealth aircraft, bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons, advanced surface ships and nuclear-powered submarines.
China has already stablished one foreign military base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti and is refurbishing
Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base that could give it at least a semipermanent presence on the Gulf of Thailand facing the disputed South China Sea.
The modernization effort has prompted concerns among the U.S. and its allies, particularly over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory to be brought under its control.
That has prompted a steady flow of weapons sales to the island, including ground systems, air defense missiles and F-16 fighters. Taiwan itself recently extended mandatory military service from four months to one year and has been revitalizing its own defense industries, including building submarines for the first time.
Although no longer increasing at the double-digit annual percentage rates of past decades, China’s defense spending has remained relatively high despite skyrocketing levels of government debt and an economy that grew last year at its second-lowest level in at least four decades.
The 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 after years of large-scale imports from Russia.