Military going through reform
Print Edition
CHINA will increase its defense budget by about 10 percent this year, a spokeswoman for the annual session of the country’s top legislature said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference on the eve of the Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress, NPC spokeswoman Fu Ying said the exact figure will be published in a draft budget report today.
“I can give you a rough idea. The recommended growth rate for national defense in the draft 2015 budget report is about 10 percent,” Fu said.
China’s defense budget rose by 12.2 percent last year to 808.2 billion yuan (US$129 billion). A 10 percent rise this year would be the lowest in five years, and put spending on defense in the world’s second-largest economy at about 890 billion yuan. In comparison, military spending by the United States in 2013 was about US$660 billion.
“To tell the truth, there is still a gap between China’s armed forces (and those of other countries) in terms of overall military equipment. We need more time,” Fu said.
“Compared with major countries in the world, the road to China’s defense modernization is indeed a difficult one,” she said.
“We have to rely on ourselves for most of our military equipment and research, which sometimes has to start from scratch,” she said.
China needs an army that can safeguard its national security and people, Fu said.
“Lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attack. That is a lesson we have learned from history,” she said.
More than 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded during World War II.
Despite the increase in spending, Fu said China’s defense policy is non-aggressive in nature, and that such a principle is “clearly defined in the country’s Constitution.”
China’s past achievements in reform and opening up come not from “cannons and warships” but from mutually beneficial cooperation, she said.
After soaring to 12.7 percent in 2011, from 7.5 percent a year earlier, the expansion of China’s military expenditure moderated to 11.2 percent in 2012 and 10.7 percent in 2013, before jumping to 12.2 percent last year.
The double-digit growth has sparked concerns in some Western countries, but Chinese experts have argued that it is in line with economic conditions.
China’s economy grew by 7.4 percent last year, its slowest pace in 24 years, but reflected what the government is calling the “new normal.”
Chinese economists have said that Beijing will likely set an economic growth target of about 7 percent for this year. If they are right, the drop in the defense budget will be even more significant.
Although the rise in spending on defense has outstripped economic growth in recent years, China’s military expenditure in 2014 represented just 1.5 percent of GDP. The global average was 2.6 percent.
In per capita terms, military spending is even lower, representing just 4.5 percent of the amount spent by the US, 11 percent by Britain and 20 percent by Japan.
Describing this year’s rise as “moderate and reasonable,” Chen Zhou, a researcher with the Academy of Military Sciences, said it was driven by “rigid demands” in the face of “rising national security obligations.”
“The army is in a key phase of informationization and mechanization as well as deepening reforms. A moderate, sustained increase in the budget is necessary,” he said.
Spending has soared as China’s military plays a greater role around the world, he said.
Chinese forces have joined peacekeeping missions, fought piracy, offered medical expertise in countries affected by Ebola and swept for mines in countries recovering from war, all of which requires financial support, Chen said.
This year’s military spending will be used for training, updating weapons and equipment, and improving soldiers’ living conditions, he said.
His words were largely in line with a white paper on national defense published in 2013, which he helped to compile.
It states that China’s military spending is divided into three parts. The first comprises the wages and subsidies paid to soldiers, both of which have risen in line with inflation.
The second covers training and logistics, and the third research and development.
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