China is to keep up a “reasonable and appropriate” increase in defense spending to satisfy its national security and military reforms, a government spokesman said yesterday, ahead of the release of the country’s defense budget.
China’s spending on its armed forces is closely watched in Asia and Washington for pointers to its broader strategic intentions amid an impressive modernization program that has developed stealth fighters, aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles.
Last year, China unveiled its largest defense spending increase in three years, setting an 8.1 percent growth target for the year.
Speaking ahead of the Chinese National People’s Congress’ release of the national budget today, congress External Affairs Committee Chairman Zhang Yesui (張業遂) said that China has always walked the path of peaceful development.
“Maintaining reasonable and appropriate growth in national defense spending is needed for protecting national security and for military reforms with Chinese characteristics,” Zhang said.
China’s “limited” defense spending is only for its own security needs, and to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and would not threaten other countries, he added.
“Whether a country poses a military threat to other countries depends on its foreign and defense policies, rather than how much its defense spending increases,” Zhang said.
He did not elaborate on how much defense spending would rise, as has often been the custom over the past few years on the day before the legislature opens.
US President Donald Trump has backed plans to request US$750 billion from the US Congress for defense spending this year.
That compares with 1.11 trillion yuan (US$165.67 billion) set aside by China for its military budget last year.
Zhang said that China only spent about 1.3 percent of GDP on its military last year, compared with more than 2 percent for “certain major developed countries.”
China gives no breakdown of its defense budget, prompting complaints from neighbors and other military powers that Beijing’s lack of transparency has fueled regional tension.
China has said that it is fully transparent and poses no threat.
Diplomats and many foreign experts have said that China’s defense numbers probably underestimate true military spending for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
This year’s figure should be unveiled at the opening of the annual session of China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament today, although in 2017, it was not initially announced, prompting renewed concerns about transparency.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS