BEIJING — China’s military budget will rise by 7 percent to 8 percent this year, less than the double-digit increases that have been the norm for years, a senior official said on Friday. But the official gave no sign that Beijing would soften its stance on disputes in the South China Sea, and she renewed China’s warnings to the United States not to intervene there.
Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, declined to say exactly how much military spending would rise. But she said the increase — to be revealed Saturday at the start of the annual legislative session, which will approve the budget and other government plans — would be relatively modest.
“This year, China’s military budget will continue rising, but more slowly compared to the previous few years,” Ms. Fu said at a news conference in Beijing. “It will be between 7 and 8 percent.”
Last year, the People’s Liberation Army’s official budget grew 10 percent to about $136 billion, and in 2014 it grew 12.2 percent. Between 2005 and 2014, China’s official military budget grew an average of 9.5 percent annually, after adjusting for inflation, according to a Pentagon estimate.
An increase of 7 percent to 8 percent from the 2015 budget would suggest that China’s military spending this year could reach about $147 billion. However, if actual spending in 2015 proved to be higher than the initial budget projection, then this year’s increase would start from that higher base.
A single-digit increase for 2016 is in keeping with the government’s standard formula for the annual military expenditure to be in line withgross domestic product plus inflation, said Dennis J. Blasko, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and the author of “The Chinese Army Today.”
“This is consistent with the way the economy has been going, and that’s the way the military budget has been determined for the last 20 years,” Mr. Blasko said. “The whole point is not to overburden the economy with military expenditures.”
He said Chinese leaders were also aware that throwing large amounts of money at the military, as the Soviet Union did, is not the way to modernize the military. “They look at the example of the Soviet Union, which flushed billions down the drain on the military, and that was the reason for its collapse,” Mr. Blasko said.
Ms. Fu on Friday defended China’s activities in the South China Sea, where it is in a dispute with the Philippines, Vietnam and other neighbors over rival claims to islands. Beijing has been turning reefs and outcrops in the sea into man-made islands with military outposts, but it says that its intentions are peaceful. Last month, China installed surface-to-air missileson Woody Island, about 250 miles southeast of Hainan, a Chinese island province.
Ms. Fu accused the United States of provoking public ire in China bysending naval ships close to islands claimed by Beijing. “This is extremely irritating to Chinese people, who feel disgusted,” she said.
“American actions and statements now leave people feeling that it’s provoking tense emotions, and it makes people put a big question mark over American motives,” Ms. Fu said. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/world/asia/china-military-spending.html
Comments are closed.