China announces an increase in defense budget

China announces 12.7% increase in defense budget

The defense spending increase to an estimated $91.5 billion, about 1.4% of gross domestic product, is expected to stir global concerns about its rising military capabilities.

The announcement comes a day ahead of the annual National People's Congress, at which the Communist Party will outline its five-year plan.

The National People's Congress spokesman Li Zhaoxing said China's defence spending would increase by 11.2% over actual spending last year to hit 670.2bn yuan (£67bn/$106.4bn) in 2012, an increase of about 67 bn yuan.

"The limited military strength of China is solely for safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity and would not pose a threat to any country," said Li, according to remarks quoted in official reports.

He said the government wants to improve weaponry, military training, human resource development and the living standards of soldiers. China's People's Liberation Army has about 2.3 million soldiers.

Mr Li described the budget as "relatively low" as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with other countries and said it was aimed at "safeguarding sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity".

"We have a large territory and a long coastline but our defence spending is relatively low compared with other major countries," Mr Li told reporters.

"It will not in the least pose a threat to other countries."

China has been increasing its military spending by double digits for most of the past decade, during which time its economy, now the world's second largest, has grown at a blistering pace.

The People's Liberation Army - the world's largest with an estimated 2.3 million troops - is hugely secretive about its defence programs, but insists its modernisation is purely defensive in nature.

China's official defence spending is the largest in the world after the United States, but actual spending, according to foreign defence experts, may be 50% higher as China excludes outlays for its nuclear missiles and other programmes.

On 04 March 2011 China said it planned to raise its defense budget by 11.2 percent to 670 billion yuan (106.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012. This year's draft defense budget is 67.6 billion yuan more than the defense expenditure of 2011, said Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of China's national legislature.

On February 13, 2012 President Barack Obama sent to Congress a proposed defense budget of $613.9 billion for fiscal 2013. The request for the Department of Defense (DoD) includes $525.4 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $88.5 billion to support Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), primarily in Afghanistan. The United States' in February 2011 request totalled of $671 billion, so the US military budget declined by about the same percentage by which the Chinese budget increased.

Foreign analysts agree that Beijing's official defence budget does not represent the full amount China spends on the military, but most external estimates still assume that the overall growth trajectory of military spending is in line with the announced figure.

The Stockholm Institute for Peace Research, one of the most respected independent research institutions, estimates that the official figure accounts for about 60 per cent of China's total military spending.

Development of China's J-10 stealth fighter is part of its military buildup over the past two decades, a trend that continues as its latest defence budget shows an 11.2% increase.



Sources:
guardian.co.uk
Los Angeles Times
globalsecurity
CNN.com
TIME.com
BBC News
dailytelegraph