The Beijing defense budget will remain the second largest in the world after the United States.
China announced on Wednesday that this year it will increase its defense spending by 7.2 percent as part of the plan to build a larger and more modern army. The defense budget of Beijing will remain the second largest in the world after the United States, TASR writes, according to AP and Reuters reports.
The new Chinese defense budget of approximately EUR 230 billion announced at the third annual meeting of Parliament – the National Folk Congress (NPC). However, according to the US Department of Defense, this number may actually be up to 40 percent higher.
The planned increase is as large as the last year. The ruling Chinese Communist Party attributes the need to increase the training budget, maintenance of technology and overall work for approximately 2 million military employees.
According to AP, the driving force for increasing spending for more modern military technologies is tensions between Beijing and neighboring countries to control the South China Sea. The Chinese army (PLA) has built several military bases in the South China Sea to strengthen Beijing’s territorial claims on artificial islands.
Another goal is to dominate the self -governing island of Taiwan, which China considers to be part of it. Prime Minister Li Chiang said the NPC’s almost three thousand session that China still favors the peaceful solution to Taiwan’s problem, but “definitely disagrees” with its promotion of formal independence. “We will firmly promote the unification of China and cooperate with our Chinese fellow citizens in Taiwan to realize the proud revival of the Chinese nation,” Li added.
President Si Jin-Pching, who is also the chief commander of the Chinese armed forces, has in the past tried to enforce the fundamental reforms of the army, dismissing several high-ranking military representatives, including two defense ministers and the head of the missile unit.
