China hikes defence budget
Beijing: China on Saturday hiked its annual defence budget by 7.1 per cent to USD 230 billion from last year's USD 209 billion, three times that of India's military spending.
The Chinese government has proposed the defence budget for the fiscal year 2022 at 1.45 trillion yuan (USD 230 billion), a 7.1 per cent year on year increase, according to the draft budget proposals presented by Premier Li Keqiang to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's parliament on Saturday.
China's hike in defence spending comes amid the People's Liberation Army's growing incidents of muscle-flexing in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
In his work report presented to the NPC, Premier Li called for deepening comprehensive combat readiness from the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
He said the PLA needed to carry out military struggles in a resolute and flexible manner to defend the country's sovereignty, security and development interests.
China's defence budget, which does not factor in the expenditure of much of its rapid modernisation of the navy, including the building of new aircraft carriers, air force and missile systems, is over three times that of India's defence budget of 5.25 lakh crore (about USD 70 billion) for 2022.
Besides the defence budget, China has a separate internal security budget which
often surpasses the defence spending.
China which continues to be the largest standing army despite downsizing its troops to two million from the earlier 2.3 million in 2017 is the second-biggest spender on defence after the US whose defence budget was over USD 600 billion.
Last year, China's defence spending for the first time crossed USD 200 billion. In 2021, the defence budget grew by 6.8 per cent to USD 209 billion.
The defence spending increased over the years as the all-around development of China's military became the focus of President Xi Jinping ever since taking over power in 2012.
Xi, 68, who heads the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) besides the military and Presidency, unlike his predecessors is set to continue in power, perhaps for life after completing his 10-year tenure this year as he is conferred the title of core leader like the Party founder Mao Zedong.
Xi has also carried out extensive reforms of the military including downsizing of the army and enhancing the role of the navy and air force as Beijing set its sights on global expansion with military bases in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
