China said its defense spending would grow by 7.2 percent this year — the fastest pace since 2019 amid increasing tensions with the US on a range of issues, including Taiwan.
The increase in the world’s second-largest defense budget came as Beijing announced an economic growth goal of about 5 percent for this year — one of its lowest in decades.
Military expenditure is expected to rise to 1.55 trillion yuan (US$224.4 billion) this year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Finance’s annual report released yesterday at the start of the Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing.
Photo: AFP
It officially rose 7.1 percent last year.
Spending on China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has increased by at least 6.6 percent each year for the past three decades, keeping pace or often exceeding economic growth.
Outgoing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) told congress delegates that “external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating.”
“The armed forces should intensify military training and preparedness across the board,” he said as he presented the government’s annual work report to thousands of amassed delegates in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
The military must “devote greater energy to training under combat conditions, and ... strengthen military work in all directions and domains,” he added.
China’s defense spending still pales in comparison with the US, which has allotted more than US$800 billion for its military this year.
The defense figure that China unveils every year is among the few official announcements that offer signs of progress the PLA is making in its revamp.
Analysts outside the nation say the actual amount far exceeds the official sum, partly because research and development expenditures are not included.
This year’s figure “feels in part a reflection of the growing increase in military spending we see globally and regionally, while also a reflection of increased sense of threat in Beijing and a need to be prepared for eventualities,” said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
“Taiwan will clearly be seen as an important focus, but my view would be that Chinese preparations go farther than this and remain about building a globally competitive military,” Pantucci said.
Yesterday’s conservative economic goals followed China posting just 3 percent growth last year, widely missing its 5.5 percent target as the economy strained under the effects of strict COVID-19 containment policies and a property crisis.
Li struck a bullish tone in his speech, saying that China’s economy “is staging a steady recovery and demonstrating vast potential and momentum for further growth.”
The sustained growth in defense spending despite sagging economic expectations showed that “security is now much more important for the national leadership” than before, said Alfred Muluan Wu (吳木鑾), an associate professor at the University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
“It is even, to some extent, more important than economic growth,” he said.
China also plans to increase its public security budget by 6.4 percent — the fastest pace in five years. That rise comes after the Asian nation experienced its most widespread protests in decades in November last year due to broad discontent over harsh COVID-19 regulations.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique