Less Than In 2018 China Increases Defense Costs By 7.5%

The drop in spending is due to the slowdown in the country's economy, with the government setting a growth target of 6.0 to 6.5%.

Less Than In 2018 China Increases Defense Costs By 7.5%

Beijing:

China announced Tuesday a 7.5 percent increase in military spending in 2019, lower than last year as the country faces an economic slowdown, but still likely to make Asian neighbors nervous.

It is working to equip the People's Liberation Army (ALP), which is home to two million men, with state-of-the-art equipment, and is devoting considerable sums of money to stealth fighters, aircraft carriers and other weapons.

Beijing has also intensified its rhetoric against any independence movement in Taiwan and continues to assert its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

The government will spend 1.19 trillion yuan ($ 177.6 billion) on defense in 2019, after increasing its spending by 8.1 percent to 1.11 trillion yuan in 2018, according to a government report presented at the beginning of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC).

With the largest army in the world, China's military spending is second only to the United States, which has budgeted $ 716 billion for defense in 2019. Beijing has not recorded a double-digit increase expenses since 2015.

The Communist-led government will "make further efforts to ensure the political loyalty of the armed forces," Prime Minister Li Keqiang said in a speech to some 3,000 members of parliament, highlighting the "absolute leadership of the party" over the army.

Li said the government "will strengthen military training in combat conditions, and will firmly protect the sovereignty, security, and development interests of China."

The drop in spending is due to the slowdown in the country's economy, with the government setting a growth target of 6.0 to 6.5%.

"China's military spending is coordinated with the annual growth of China's GDP," said James Char, a military expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

"China has other national priorities and an over-militarized national economy can deprive the government of much-needed resources, like what happened to the former USSR," Char said.

No threat?

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has pledged to make the Sudan Liberation Army a "world-class" military force by mid-century, has repeatedly called on the military to be ready for combat .

"In Taiwan, we can legitimately be concerned about the increases in the Chinese budget, because they coincide with a more aggressive stance towards Taipei," said Barthelemy Courmont, researcher in Asia at the Institute of Strategic and Foreign Relations. Paris.

China also faces competing claims in the South China Sea from Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Beijing is also in territorial conflict with its historical rival, Japan, in the East China Sea.

But NPC spokesman Zhang Yesui said Monday that China's military spending "does not pose a threat to other countries" and aims to maintain sovereignty and security.

 PLA high technology

The Communist Party has focused on catching up with the technology used by the armed forces in the United States and Western Europe.

Prime Minister Li said that China "will accelerate efforts to make innovations in science and technology related to defense."

China has built a second aircraft carrier-the first manufactured in Canada-and has tested it at sea in recent months as it prepares to put it into service.

Beijing is also building new-generation destroyers, fighter planes and ballistic missiles, while research is underway to develop electromagnetic rail weapons and anti-satellite lasers.

Authorities, experts and state media say the PLA must improve the pay and living conditions of its troops.

Efforts to professionalize the army and prepare it for war require more military exercises, which means more spending on ammunition and fuel.