New Delhi: China today announced an 8.1 per cent hike in its defence expenditure for this year to a whopping $175 billion, which is over three times higher than India’s defence budget as it seeks to modernize its military.
The 8.1 percent increase is higher than last year’s announcement, when China upped military spending by 7 percent over the previous year.
According to a budget report to be submitted to the National People’s Congress (NPC) today, the 2018 defence budget will be 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion).
China last year increased the defence budget to $150.5 billion. It is the second largest spender on defence after the US. The Pentagon has requested a budget of $686 billion in 2019, up $80 billion from 2017. Chinese Navy also expanded its global reach with flotilla ships sailing through the far-off oceans to expand China’s influence.
China’s defence budget takes up a smaller share of its gross domestic product (GDP) and national fiscal expenditure compared with other major countries, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson of the NPC said.
Its military spending per capita is also lower than other major countries, Zhang said.
“A large part of the growth of the defence budget is to make up for the low military spending in the past and is mainly used to upgrade equipment and improve the welfare of servicemen and women and the living and training conditions of grassroots troops,” he said.
“Faced with profound changes in the national security environment” the absolute leadership of the military by the ruling Communist Party must be observed, and the unity between the government and the military, and the people and the military, must always be “strong as stone”, Zhang said.
China and its present leader is acting more and more like Mao Zedong and while the fundamental nature of that regime is aggressive many countries are concerned by this boost in defence budget.
