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The defence budget will rise 11.2 per cent to 670.27 billion yuan ($106.41 billion), said Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for China's national parliament, citing a budget report submitted to the country's rubber-stamp legislature. The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when spending rose by 12.7 per cent but is still likely to fuel worries over China's growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and push its neighbours to forge closer ties with the United States.
Li described the budget as "relatively low" as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with other countries and said it was aimed at "safeguarding sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity". "We have a large territory and a long coastline but our defence spending is relatively low compared with other major countries," Li told reporters. "It will not in the least pose a threat to other countries."
China has been increasing its military spending by double digits for most of the past decade, during which time its economy, now the world's second largest, grew at a blistering pace. The People's Liberation Army -- the world's largest with an estimated 2.3 million troops -- is hugely secretive about its defence programmes, but insists its modernisation is purely defensive in nature.
The rapid military build-up has nevertheless set alarm bells ringing across Asia and in Washington, which announced in January a defence strategy focused on countering China's rising power. Analysts said the smaller-than-expected increase in spending this year was an attempt by Beijing to ease concerns in the United States and the region about its growing military might. "It is doubtful whether the message will get across because most countries know that the real budget is at least double the published one," said Willy Lam, a leading China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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For the first time, Chinas defense spending will top $100 billion and that figure is believed by international experts to omit such large-ticket items as its space program. Although the increase is not as large as last years, it is enough to provoke anxiety at a time that the United States is shifting military resources to the Asia-Pacific. The budget was unveiled, as in past years, on the eve of the opening session of the National Peoples Congress, Chinas equivalent of a legislature, which meets annually in March. At a news conference Sunday, Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for the congress, announced the $110-billion budget, while stating that the spending constitutes no threat to other countries. "You can see that we have 1.3 billion people with a large land areas and a long coastline, but our outlays on defense are quite low compared to other major countries," said Li.
By way of comparison, the U.S. Congress has approved $662 billion in Pentagon spending for next year, $43 billion lower than this year's budget. China has been trying to upgrade its naval forces and in August unveiled an aircraft carrier it is developing -- a refurbished Soviet model acquired from Ukraine. It also did a test flight early last year of a prototype of a stealth fighter jet. China is "growing bolder with regard to their expanded regional and global presence, and China continues to challenge the United States and our partners in the region in the maritime, cyber and space domains," Adm. Robert Willard, U.S. commander for the Asia-Pacific region, told the Senate Arms Services Committee last week. "They continue to advance their capabilities and capacities in all areas."
In recent years, China has made more assertive maritime claims, unnerving neighbors, particularly Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. Last year at this time, Beijing announced a 12.7% increase in military spending, resuming double-digit expansion after a more modest 7.5% increase in 2010.
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The planned increase would lift spending to some 670 billion yuan ($106.4 billion) in 2012, which is almost 68 billion more than 2011 spending, said Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the National People's Congress. By comparison, the proposed U.S. defense budget for the 2013 fiscal year is $613.9 billion, including $525.4 billion in base spending. That budget cuts half a trillion dollars in spending increases over the next 10 years. Li spoke a day before the annual session of the Chinese legislature is scheduled to start in Beijing. "The Chinese government follows the principle of coordinating defense development with economic development. It sets the country's defense spending according to the requirement of national defense and the level of economic development," he said.
Last year, China announced it would increase its defense budget by close to 13%. It reported a 7.5% increase the year before. Li stressed that China's defense spending will go primary toward living expenses, training, maintenance and equipment, China's state news agency Xinhua reported. Given the country's population, long coastline and large territory, the outlays are low, he said. "The limited military strength of China is solely for safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will not pose a threat to any country," the news agency reported Li as saying. Still, China's announcement is sure to stoke concerns among some its neighbors.
China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to use force against the island if it ever formally sought independence. China also has claimed a significant portion of the South China Sea as its own territorial waters, putting it in conflict with other nations that have made claims on portions of the region. The move is similarly sure to raise eyebrows in Washington, where President Barack Obama is pursuing a more aggressive approach in the region. During last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the president stressed the importance of the Pacific to global economic security.
And this year, Obama and top defense officials unveiled a new U.S. defense strategy that focuses heavily on the Asia-Pacific region, a fast-growing economic powerhouse with numerous potential flashpoints that the administration has identified as crucial to U.S. interests. The strategy calls for the United States to increase its military's "institutional weight and focus on enhanced presence, power projection, and deterrence in Asia-Pacific," said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Xinhua, while welcoming a peaceful U.S. role in the region, cautioned in a commentary then against the United States acting like a "bull in a china shop."
China's double digit military growth – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said shifts in global economic power were increasingly reflected in military spending. "Since the financial crisis in 2008, there has been a convergence in European and Asian defence spending levels," John Chipman, the IISS director general, said. "While per capita spending levels in Asia remain significantly lower than those in Europe, on the current trend, Asian defence spending is likely to exceed that of Europe, in nominal terms, during 2012." China leads the way in Asia and is engaged in a modernisation programme of its forces and military hardware financed by its rapid economic development, the report says.
Defence budgets in Europe meanwhile have been cut as a result of the economic crisis, with Britain - which has the biggest in Europe - imposing cuts of up to 30 per cent. "In Europe, defence budgets remain under pressure and cuts continue to procurement programmes, equipment holdings and defence organisations," Mr Chipman said. "Between 2008 and 2010, there have been reductions in defence spending in at least 16 European Nato member states. In a significant proportion of these, real-term declines have exceeded 10 per cent." He said the effect of the cuts in European defence budgets was illustrated in last year's campaign in Libya, "which highlighted existing gaps in targeting, tanker aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance".
The United States, though its position as the world's military superpower is unchallenged for now, has cut back and reorientated its spending on defence, the IISS says. US military spending in 2011 was US$739.3 billion (Dh2.7 trillion) compared to $89.8bn in China. The US defence budget alone far exceeded the combined total of the 10 other biggest spenders.
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and most of them are slant-eyes
and most of them are slant-eyes
I haveno idea who the leader of china is after mAO
I haveno idea who the leader of china is after mAO
and most of them are slant-eyes
You are one of the most ignorant close minded retarded cocksuckers on this board hands down.
Chinese have an unlimited surplus of young fighting age men with no wives to be able to send anywhere in the world it is fact that they have boasted that they can field an army of 200 million men. China has had a long history of being the economic trading superpower of the world, perhaps they are attempting to rule the world economically again. Can we stop it? We do have a large army but we are already sick of these resource wars.
Chinese have an unlimited surplus of young fighting age men with no wives to be able to send anywhere in the world it is fact that they have boasted that they can field an army of 200 million men. China has had a long history of being the economic trading superpower of the world, perhaps they are attempting to rule the world economically again. Can we stop it? We do have a large army but we are already sick of these resource wars.
I raise their 200 million by 5 hydrogen bombs. I win.
Chinese have an unlimited surplus of young fighting age men with no wives to be able to send anywhere in the world it is fact that they have boasted that they can field an army of 200 million men. China has had a long history of being the economic trading superpower of the world, perhaps they are attempting to rule the world economically again. Can we stop it? We do have a large army but we are already sick of these resource wars.
I raise their 200 million by 5 hydrogen bombs. I win.
You are really, really stupid.
Chinese have an unlimited surplus of young fighting age men with no wives to be able to send anywhere in the world it is fact that they have boasted that they can field an army of 200 million men. China has had a long history of being the economic trading superpower of the world, perhaps they are attempting to rule the world economically again. Can we stop it? We do have a large army but we are already sick of these resource wars.