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  • China to accelerate defence spending in 2006

    China to accelerate defence spending in 2006


    BEIJING (updated on: March 04, 2006, 12:37 PST): China is to accelerate military spending in 2006, the government said on Saturday amid renewed tension across the Taiwan Strait, a potential regional powder keg.

    Beijing would spend 14.7 percent more on defence in 2006 than it did last year, a spokesman for the national parliament said.

    China's official defence budget would rise to 283.8 billion yuan ($35.3 billion), spokesman Jiang Enzhu told a news conference ahead of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress opening on Sunday.

    Last year China spent $30.2 billion on its military, he said, an increase of 12.6 percent.

    Jiang said this year's extra money would go to raising wages and welfare of military personnel, improving their professional training, and coping with rising oil and other costs.

    China also "needs to modestly increase spending on some armaments and improve the defensive fighting capacity of the military", he said.

    The rise is the latest of a succession of double-digit increases in military spending. US defence officials and many defence analysts have said Beijing in fact spends much more on military equipment and forces than the official budget shows.

    But Jiang said the rise was modest compared with the military spending of the United States and other powers, and as a proportion of the budget China's defence spending had remained steady.

    The amount would be 7.4 percent of China's overall budget for 2006, he said.

    "China's defence budget has risen in recent years along with the development of its economy," Jiang said. "But the proportion of the budget given over to defence spending is much the same as in past years."

    Developed countries spent bigger chunks of their national economies and budgets on defence, with the United States devoting 17.8 percent of its budget to the military, he said.

    "China will insist on a course of peaceful development, and China has neither the intention or ability to vigorously develop armaments," he said.

    But many analysts say a major focus of Beijing's rising military budgets has been Taiwan, the self-ruled island China says is its territory and must accept eventual reunification.

    This week, China and Taiwan entered another bout of tensions after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian suspended a council and guidelines on reunification with the mainland. Jiang called that "a step on the path to Taiwan independence".

    Jiang repeated Beijing's long-held line that China hopes for peaceful reunification, "but we will absolutely not allow Taiwan to be split from China".

    China has said that, if necessary, it would recover Taiwan by force.

  • #2
    the neocons are going to have a field day with this. I can just imagine the outcry from Rumsfeld, Japan and Taiwan now.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by tphuang
      the neocons are going to have a field day with this. I can just imagine the outcry from Rumsfeld, Japan and Taiwan now.
      TP,

      Why don't we have a China military thread here yet?
      Imho, there's enough news and stuff to discuss.

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      • #4
        I agree, this is an Asian discussion forum and there are lots of things going on with the PLA and company.



        The US believes that the Chinese spent 91 billion dollars last year on defence, one wonders about the new figure.
        I cant blame the Chinese for spending, they have to face Taiwan, the US and Japan, they have to spend to stand a chance.

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        • #5
          Now there is India to the south and Pakistan is not able to keep up with Indian defence spending at all so.... China must make up for the slack. There is a Sukhoi regiment in Tibet. PLans are afoot to expand this and of course the PLAN has long term plans to make it into the Indian ocean.

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          • #6
            China's military spending with 35 bn USD a year is even too low IMO.
            Being the nation with the biggest population (above 1.3 bn citizens) it should have at least the 3rd highest military spendin, right after US' 420+ bn and Russia's 100 bn! The US claims that China has not included research costs and the purchase costs of foreign arms (like the Sovremenny class, Kilo Klass and Su-30 etc.). But as I know the US also do not include most of their research costs of new weapons technology too!
            But since it is clear that China will have its own aircraft carriers and carrier jets like the J-10C and maybe some new Su-33, China really might need to spend more than 50 bn USD in the near future. By the way, Japan besides Germany was an aggressor in the pacific during WW2 from 1937 to 1945. How come that they can spend over 45 bn for defense despite having an ugly war record without being slammed by the US etc.?
            I think it's about mutual gain, especially when talking about strategic plans in the pacific.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by jumpman cbt
              By the way, Japan besides Germany was an aggressor in the pacific during WW2 from 1937 to 1945. How come that they can spend over 45 bn for defense despite having an ugly war record without being slammed by the US etc.?.
              The last time I checkd Japan did not threaten an invasion against Taiwan, nor they have missiles pointing towards Taiwan.
              A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

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              • #8
                Well, it all depends on the perspective that you look at certain situation. From the American perspective, China will clearly be the bad guys. On the other hand, if you are in one of the former countries that suffered Japanese invasion, you probably will feel differently.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Jay
                  The last time I checkd Japan did not threaten an invasion against Taiwan, nor they have missiles pointing towards Taiwan.
                  Neither does Taiwan wants Japan's help in her defence.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by jumpman cbt
                    By the way, Japan besides Germany was an aggressor in the pacific during WW2 from 1937 to 1945. How come that they can spend over 45 bn for defense despite having an ugly war record without being slammed by the US etc.?
                    Japan has been a staunch U.S. ally for decades, and exercises regularly with the USN. In fact, the JMSDF is very well suited to joint operations with the U.S.

                    The U.S. also wanted a rearmed Japan as a counterweight to the Soviets in Asian. (As well as a rearmed Germany in Europe for the same reason)

                    The other thing to remember is that Japan needs a large navy for a darn good reason and the U.S. knows it well:
                    They are an island nation completely dependent upon seaborne trade and they've seen what happens when their merchant fleet stops coming and going: Starvation and complete economic shutdown.
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                    • #11
                      Next five years 'important period' for Chinese military modernisation: Hu

                      BEIJING (updated on: March 12, 2006, 11:11 PST): Chinese President Hu Jintao has told a group of senior officers the next five years will be 'an important period' for the nation's military modernisation, state media reported on Sunday.

                      "The 11th five-year plan (from 2006 to 2010) is a crucial period for the establishment of a comparatively prosperous society," Hu said Saturday, according to a front-page story in the People's Daily.

                      "It is also an important period for defence and army modernisation," he told the officers, assembled in Beijing as delegates to the ongoing National People's Congress, or parliament.

                      Hu's remarks came just days after China announced its military budget for this year would rise 14.7 percent to 35 billion dollars, the latest in a series of double-digit annual increases dating back to the early 1990s.

                      A Pentagon report last year estimated that China's defence spending was two to three times the publicly announced figure and that the military balance with arch rival Taiwan was tipping in Beijing's favour.

                      Hu, who met the officers in his capacity as chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, was wearing a simple green military jacket for the occasion, photos in the People's Daily showed.

                      He said efforts should be stepped up to equip the army with modern information technology and improve its combat efficiency through high-tech means.

                      "We should strive to improve the capability of the armed forces to deal with crises, maintain peace, contain wars and win victory in possible wars," he said.

                      "We must give top priority to defending national sovereignty and security, and get ready for military struggles... We must follow the scientific concept of sustainable development to strengthen national defence and army building."

                      China has been striving to transform its military from an organisation that relied on strength in numbers to a leaner, more sophisticated fighting force.

                      It announced in January it had demobilised 200,000 members of its military over the previous three years, but even after those personnel cuts, it remained the world's largest with 2.3 million troops.

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