China ramps up military spending citing 'escalating' foreign threats - The Telegraph

Xi Jinping will hike military spending to its fastest pace in four years because of what China perceives to be escalating foreign threats.

Spending on defence will increase by 7.2 per cent to 1.55 trillion Yuan (£187 billion) this year, which is the sharpest rise since 2019 when defence spending rose by 7.5 per cent to 1.19 trillion yuan.

The announcement on Sunday comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, territorial spats in the South China sea, border disputes with India, and its threat to invade Taiwan. 

Highlighting the renewed focus on defence spending, outgoing prime minister Li Keqiang set a more modest target for economic growth of around 5 per cent for this year. 

It’s the lowest growth target in more than a quarter of a century despite the economy being battered by three years of strict Covid rules. 

“[E]xternal attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating," he said at the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp parliament. 

“We remained committed to the Party’s absolute leadership over the people’s armed forces.”

President Xi Jinping walks past delegates Credit: AFP

Last year, Beijing set a 5.5 per cent economic growth target but badly missed it as tourism, retail and property markets all suffered under draconian lockdowns. 

The economy grew just three per cent – its second-worst performance since 1976, the final year of Mao Zedong’s disastrous Cultural Revolution.

This year’s increase on military spending will mark the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage point increases in what is now the world’s second-largest military budget.  

It comes as Beijing asserts itself abroad with a foreign military base in Djibouti and a naval base in Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base that could give it at least a semi-permanent presence on the Gulf of Thailand facing the disputed South China Sea.

The moves have prompted concerns among the US and its allies, particularly over Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

Along with Taiwan, tensions have been rising with the US over China’s militarisation of islands in the South China Sea, which it claims virtually in its entirety, and most recently, the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US east coast.

“The people’s armed forces intensified efforts to enhance their political loyalty, to strengthen themselves through reform, scientific and technological advances, and personnel training, and to practice law-based governance,” Li said.

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2023-03-05 20:37:00Z
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