Became known that in 2017, the defense budget of China for the first time will exceed one trillion yuan. During the press-conference the press-Secretary launched on March 5 the national people’s Congress people’s Congress Fu Ying said that this year economic growth will be 7%. This will enable China to strengthen the power of the Navy and air force, which keeps the Maritime expansion of the country. The arms race with the administration trump is gaining momentum.
During the press conference, Fu Ying said that the defence budget of China is discussed with consideration of the needs in the field of defence, as well as economic situation. Over the past 21 years defence expenditure of China grew by more than 10%, however, due to the slowing economic pace in 2016, the growth has decreased to single digits. In this case the scale, the Chinese defense costs are higher than Japanese (about 5.1 trillion yen) three times. Only this year they will grow to 65 billion yuan. Thus, military expansion continues.
Given the strong reaction from the international community, Fu Ying pointed out that NATO requires defense budget of countries in the bloc, was more than 2% of GDP, and stressed that China supports the level of 1.3% of GDP. “Perhaps the U.S. is concerned that China will overtake them, however, the difference in power between the U.S. and China is enormous,” said she, thereby justifying the increase of China’s military expenditures.
A Chinese military require that the growth of defense spending was again increased to double digits. “Regarding the issue of Taiwan, we strive to combine military power of both countries,” — said one of the Chinese military officials, demonstrating a rigorous approach to this issue. Thus the military put pressure to increase the budget of the PRC.
Perhaps President trump, expressing the intention to bring U.S. military power to a historic high, will accelerate this process.
In 2018, the administration trump’s plans to increase defence spending by 54 billion dollars. As a result, they will be $ 600 billion. In the center of this program is to increase the nuclear potential. Experts believe that first and foremost it will affect the modernization of Intercontinental ballistic missiles.
On March 2, President trump spoke at a newly built aircraft carrier. He expressed his intention to carry out restructuring in the field of the Navy, increasing the number of aircraft carriers.
China continues to increase its Maritime expansion. On March 2, three days before the all-Chinese Assembly of people’s representatives, 13 Chinese military aircraft overflew a Strait between Miyako and Okinawa, and conducted military exercises in the Western Pacific ocean. Every year, China holds more military exercises in remote areas. In December last year, the first Chinese aircraft carrier “Liaoning” has entered the South China sea from the Pacific ocean and around Taiwan. It happened under the system access restrictions (A2AD) efforts to prevent the deployment of American troops.
Equipment of the Chinese Navy and air force is also updated. According to knowledgeable sources at the end of last year China received the first four of the newest Russian fighter SU-35. The expected delivery of another 20 fighters. In Dalian and Shanghai, the construction of aircraft carriers.
The international community is concerned that defence spending, which publishes China, opaque. The cost of development of aircraft carriers and other equipment are in a separate budget, so experts say that the real military spending can be more than double the official figures. Official data from China, causing doubt, causing increasing concerns of the US and neighboring countries. As a result, this leads to an arms race.
The expert’s opinion. The expert of the Tokyo Foundation Tsunemori Obara:
In 2020, China intends to deploy in remote regions of the carrier strike group, however, with the election trump President of the United States this program can be accelerated. Increase defense spending by 7% in 2017 — this is only the official data. On the background of an increase in personnel costs related to improving conditions for military personnel it is difficult to determine the actual budget for the development of weapons. In order to understand the actual growth of military spending of China, it is necessary to examine not only the figures of the Ministry of defence, but also the technique, which is put into service.
