China’s defense budget up by 10.1%
Print Edition
CHINA has announced a 10.1 percent rise in its defense budget for 2015, the lowest growth in five years as the country confronts mounting pressure in the face of an economic slowdown.
According to a budget report released shortly before the country’s top legislature began its annual session yesterday, the government is to raise its defense budget to 886.9 billion yuan (US$141.5 billion).
That would make China the second largest military spender in the world following the United States, whose defense budget was US$600.4 billion in 2013.
The 10.1 percent rise represented the lowest expansion in China since 2010, when the defense budget was set to grow by 7.5 percent.
Since then it has been increasing in double figures, expanding 12.2 percent last year.
Yesterday’s budget report did not explain the rationale behind this year’s lower figure growth, but a government work report presented by Premier Li Keqiang said that national defense development would be coordinated with economic growth.
The economy grew 7.4 percent in 2014, its weakest annual expansion in more than two decades. The government set this year’s growth target at around 7 percent, brewing new concerns that the world’s economic powerhouse is losing steam.
But Li played down such concerns, stressing that China is now in a “new normal” state, where a balance ought to be stuck between growth and structural optimization.
He said China will comprehensively strengthen modern logistics, step up national defense research and development of new and high-technology weapons and equipment, and develop defense-related science and technology industries.
“Building a solid national defense and strong armed forces is fundamental to safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security, and developmental interests,” he said. “Governments at all levels must always take an active interest in and support the strengthening of our national defense and armed forces.”
Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the NPC session, told reporters China needs an army that can safeguard national security and its people. “Lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attacks. That is a lesson we have learned from history,” she said.
Chen Zhou, a researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences, said the rise for 2015 was in line with China’s national defense needs and its commitment to peaceful development.
“The army is in the key phase of informationization and mechanization as well as deepening reforms. A moderate, sustained increase in the military budget is thus necessary,” he said.
Expenditure also soared as China’s military forces began to bear more responsibilities around the world.
The country’s military has joined international peacekeeping missions, fought piracy in dangerous waters, offered medical expertise in countries affected by Ebola and swept for mines in countries that are still recovering from past wars, Chen said.
This year’s spending will be for training, updating weapons and equipment and improving soldiers’ living conditions, he said.
“We will make sure that every cent is spent to boost the army’s combativeness,” Chen said. “This will be the ‘new normal’ in China’s army development.”
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