China Plans Big Increase in Military Budget

New York Times | Mar 4, 2007 

China announced its biggest increase in military spending in five years on Sunday, an increase that quickly prompted the United States to renew its calls for more transparency from the Chinese military about the scope and intent of its rapid arms buildup.

Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People’s Congress, the Communist Party-controlled national legislature, said China’s military budget would rise this year by 17.8 percent, to roughly 350 billion yuan, or just under $45 billion.

“We must increase our military budget, as it is important to national security,” Mr. Jiang said at a news conference. “China’s military must modernize. Our overall defenses are weak.”

But China’s military modernization efforts, particularly its drive to develop advanced weaponry, have been raising concern from Washington to Tokyo to New Delhi. In January, China set off fears of an arms race in space when it successfully tested an anti-satellite missile that destroyed one its own aging weather satellites. A month earlier, the People’s Liberation Army began deploying the country’s first state-of-the-art jet fighter, the J-10.

These advances reflect China’s intense focus on scientific and technological development, and are the fruits of more than a decade of increased military spending. China’s defense outlays increased roughly 15 percent every year from 1990 to 2005, according to the Chinese military. This year’s jump is the largest one reported since military spending rose by 19.4 percent in 2002.

Military analysts say that China’s public military budget actually reflects only a fraction of its overall military spending, and that the real figure is likely to be two to four times higher. Most military analysts agree that China’s military focus is to build a force that would prevail in any conflict with Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, and also to be capable of creating a deterrent to prevent American forces from intervening.