China’s defense budget will rise again by about 10 percent in 2015, despite the slowing economy, after almost two decades of double digits increases. The money is mostly spent on high-tech equipment such as submarines and stealth jets.
Although it is the world’s second-highest military spender, China is still far behind the US. Last year, the defense spending rose by 12.2 percent to $130bn, while US President Barack Obama has requested a budget of $585bn for the fiscal year 2016, according to BBC.
A formal announcement on the budget will be made on Thursday, Fu Ying, spokeswoman for China’s annual parliament session the National People’s Congress, giving just a “rough” figure, in line with overall spending growth.
China says the spending is required to modernize the People’s Liberation Army, which is the largest standing military in the world. In addition to submarines and stealth jets, China is also pouring investment in naval forces, including an aircraft carrier. However, experts think the country’s real defense spending is much larger. Money could also be spent on cyber capabilities and satellites, experts believe.
“Compared with great powers, the road of China’s defense modernization is more difficult. We have to rely on ourselves for most of our military equipment and research and development,” Fu said.
“In addition, we must strengthen the protection of our officers and soldiers. But fundamentally speaking, China’s defense policy is defensive in nature. This is clearly defined in the constitution. We will not easily change this direction and principle.”
The military investments are closely watched in the region, where Beijing has shown a more determined stance on its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, with both Japan and South East Asian nations. This determined both Japan and India to increase their military budget.
In the last decades, China justified the country’s military spending on the rapid GDP growth. But 2014 was the slowest in 24 years with just 7.4 percent and in 2015 is expected a further slowdown to about 7 percent.