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Academic urges Beijing to boost military spending

China should pump up its military spending to safeguard national security because of the danger of Taiwan declaring independence, state media yesterday quoted a government think tank academic as saying.

China also does not spend enough money on defense, considering the rapid growth of its economy, the China News Service quoted Hu Angang (胡鞍剛), director of the Center for China Studies at the prestigious Tsinghua University, as saying.

"China should further increase the percentage of national defense spending, given the fact that China has not been truly unified and faces the possible danger of Taiwan's independence," Hu was quoted as saying.

China's military spending was officially about US$30 billion last year, a 12.6 percent rise on the previous year, but many foreign experts believe the real figure could be significantly higher.

"China's military buildup has greatly lagged behind the development of the economy, so that national defense construction has not been in accord with the economy's development," Hu said.

Washington has been raising alarms over Beijing's defense modernization for several years. The recent annual Pentagon report on China's military power said it had yet to fully explain the reason for its military expansion.

But Beijing insists that its military poses no threat and that it spends less on defense as a share of its economy than many Western countries. China puts its military spending at about 1.4 percent of GDP, but Western experts say it could be as high as 2.8 percent.

The Pentagon also said China was adding about 100 short-range missiles a year for deployment opposite Taiwan, shifting the balance of power between the two toward China.

In other developments, President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) expressed his condolences to the 40 victims of a military plane crash in eastern China on Saturday, and ordered a full investigation into the accident.

"The motherland and people will never forget their [the victims'] heroic names and merits," Hu said.

The cause of the crash, which killed all aboard the transport plane, remained a mystery yesterday, as did details about the plane and its mission.

Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily quoted an eyewitness who lives near Baidian Township as saying that the plane was flying near a hill when it exploded in mid-air. The plane parts were scattered across the hill, it said.
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