China Announces $45 Billion Defence Budget. What Or Whom Are They Afraid Of?
Amid global concerns about its ambitious military modernisation, China on Sunday announced a hike in this year’s defence budget by a whopping 17.8 per cent to nearly $45 billion.China’s defence budget for 2007 is expected to hit 350.92 billion yuan ($ 44.94 billion), 17.8 per cent higher than last year, Chinese parliamentary spokesman Jiang Enzhu told reporters ahead of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) starting on Monday.
The figure marks an increase of 52.99 billion yuan ($ 6.79 billion) over last year. The budget proposal is expected to be passed by the NPC session in mid-March.
The extra money will be spent on boosting living allowances for the armed forces, training and upgrading military armaments, he said. ‘‘We must increase our military budget as it is important to national security,’’ Jiang said.
This year’s defence budget accounts for 7.5 per cent of the budgeted fiscal expenditure, compared to 7.7 per cent in 2004, 7.3 per cent in 2005 and 7.4 per cent in 2006, he said.
In 2006, China’s defence budget had gone up by 14.7 per cent to 280.729 billion yuan ($ 35.09 billion), which was 36.025 billion yuan more than the corresponding figure in 2005.
But the spending spree by the world’s largest standing army has raised concern in the United States, Japan and other nations. Moreover, western defence scholars say China could be spending thrice the amount on its national defence than the publicly stated figure.
Last week, US Vice President Dick Cheney said that China’s military build-up and the January 11 anti-satellite missile test were ‘‘not consistent’’ with the government’s stated goal of a ‘peaceful rise.’
But senior Chinese officials have rejected US and Japanese concerns. (Newindpress.com)
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posted by The Malaysian. at 3/05/2007 10:15:00 AM
4 Comments:
What's wrong with this $45billion figure?
The USA & many advanced countries spent much more than this amount.
The USA could & will attack any countries he wishes (Afganistan, Iraq, Somalia). Isn't this good reason for any countries,including China, Iran, N. Korea or even Malaysia to increase their military spending?
Mao tse-tung once said, Chinese children can go hungry but China must have an atomic bomb. You must study Chinese history to understand why the Chinese need to have a strong military. Having been bullied, raped and pillaged by the European powers and Japan from the early 1800s until the mid-1900s China has since come a long way in salvaging national pride - and sovereignty. In an attempt to seek a better life many Chinese were forced by circumstance to leave their homeland, suffering discrimination and exploitations in other countries. Even today the descendents of those Chinese emigrants who now are citizens of Malaysia suffer discrimination despite their enormous contributions to the development of their adopted country.
The USD45million defence budget is to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence. China must be armed with the most modern stae-of-the-art weaponry to frighten of the Americans who might come to the rescue of Taiwan because it will be invaded once independence is declared.
China is surrounded by North Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Vietnam... not exactly a bunch of Chinese lovers are they? I say China should spend more on defense, and not repeat the mistakes it made in the past 2 centuries by appearing weak to foreign powers.
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