China is expected to increase its military expenditures by 12.6 percent this year, sources said yesterday, as it boosts its capability of using force to conquer Taiwan.
The rise in spending comes with Washington voicing concern that China's military build-up could tilt the strategic balance with Taiwan and also threaten US forces in Asia.
In his report to the upcoming annual session of the National People's Congress, Finance Minister Jin Renqing (金人慶) is expected to propose raising military spending this year to 244.65 billion yuan (US$29.5 billion), sources said.
China's stated military budget has increased by double digits over most of the last 15 years with defense spending rising by more than 17 percent in 2001 and 2002.
It fell to a 9.6 percent clip in 2003 before rising again to 11.6 percent last year.
According to the CIA, China's publicized military budget is "less than half of China's actual defense spending."
Other military analysts say China's actual defense spending could be up to three times more than its stated figure as Beijing does not include new arms purchases and weapons' research and development in the figures.
The US defense budget is about US$400 billion this year, while Japan's is about US$47 billion.
Meanwhile, an American photojournalist was kicked and beaten by police in Beijing after he tried to document citizens handing in complaints to the nation's parliament, he said yesterday.
"I was in front of the complaints office just observing how they were manhandling and harassing petitioners," Michael Reynolds, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), said of the Wednesday afternoon incident.
"As soon as I whipped out my camera, they [police] immediately encircled me and began grabbing me and my camera," he said.
Also See Story:
MAC says `Beijing's new law a blank check for PLA
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS