Double-digit rise for China's military spending

BEIJING, March 4: China has announced a double-digit increase in its secretive military budget but insisted the annual outlay of more than 90 billion dollars posed no external threat, despite concern worldwide.



The defence budget will rise 12.7 percent in 2011 to 601.1 billion yuan ($91.7 billion), according to Li Zhaoxing, spokesman of the national parliament and a former foreign minister.[break]



He said the figure was contained in a budgetary report submitted for approval to the Communist Party-controlled National People´s Congress, which opens its annual 10-day session on Saturday.



"China has always paid attention to controlling the size of defence spending," Li told reporters, describing spending as "relatively low" as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with the rest of the world.



Li said the figure represented six percent of the total national budget in the world´s second-largest economy.



But the number represents a return to double-digit increases in military spending, which have alarmed the United States, Australia and several of China´s Asian neighbours.



That multi-year trend had been broken in 2010 when the budget rose 7.5 percent. In any case, many analysts say the announced budget is far lower than actual spending.



The People´s Liberation Army -- the world´s largest -- is hugely secretive about its defence programmes, but insists its modernisation is purely defensive in nature to protect China´s vast land and sea borders.



"This will not pose a threat to any country," Li said.



Willy Lam, a China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the published military budget -- which he said was likely only one-third to one-half of actual spending -- will be poured into next-generation equipment.



"The return to this double-digit PLA budget reflects the growing power of the PLA," Lam told AFP. "They are trying to close the gap with Russia and the United States."



The build-up is also widely seen as geared in large part at reclaiming Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war. Taiwanese experts say China has more than 1,600 missiles aimed at the self-ruled island.







Rick Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in the United States, said the increases also reflect jitters in the Communist Party leadership over its hold on power.



China already sees tens of thousands of protests each year, and mounting public concern over high inflation and a myriad of other issues makes it vital for the Communist Party to secure firm PLA political support, he said.



"China wants to project strength with this return to double-digit military spending, but in reality it reflects serious regime weakness," Fisher said.



Tokyo has repeatedly questioned Beijing´s military intentions, especially after collisions in disputed waters in September between two Japanese coastguard boats and a Chinese fishing vessel that sparked a major row.



"We regard the modernisation of China´s military power and its growing and intense activities as concerns," top Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano said Thursday, after two Chinese planes approached a contested island chain.



Japan plans to send more forces to its scattered southern islands and away from Cold War-era locations in the north near Russia, citing Beijing´s increased regional assertiveness.



India´s defence minister last month expressed "serious concern" over China´s growing military might.



On Monday, India announced a nearly 12 percent jump in defence spending to $36 billion in its annual budget -- up from a four percent hike last year.



In January, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing to patch up frayed military ties -- and was instead greeted with the maiden flight of China´s first stealth fighter.



Last month, the Pentagon proposed a record "base" defence budget -- excluding the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts -- of $553 billion for fiscal 2012.



"Advances by the Chinese military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare pose a potential challenge to the ability of our forces to operate and communicate in this part of the Pacific," Gates said after his China visit.



But he added that Washington and Tokyo were well-placed to counter the threat with high-tech hardware and that it was not a foregone conclusion that China would turn into a military rival.

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