|
BEIJING: China announced Tuesday that its defense spending would
rise 17.6 percent this year but insisted the increase was moderate,
after the United States expressed concerns about Beijing’s
expanding military power.
Military spending in 2008 will reach 417.8
billion yuan (57.2 billion dollars at the end-2007 exchange rate), a
spokesman for China’s parliament told reporters ahead of the
legislature’s annual session beginning Wednesday.
As Jiang Enzhu announced the figures, he also
renewed a warning to rival Taiwan that its plans for a March 22
referendum on United Nations membership was putting an already
uneasy peace between the two sides at further risk.
Nevertheless, Jiang said the budget rise,
following a similar jump in 2007, was moderate, with the spending
coming off a low base and helping to boost soldiers’ incomes as
well as beef up the military’s high-tech capabilities.
“In recent years the Chinese government has
moderately increased its spending on national defense on the basis
of sustained, steady and fast economic growth and rapid build-up of
government revenues,” Jiang said. “These increases were of a
compensatory nature to make up for the weak defense foundation.”
Jiang said China’s military spending was just
1.4 percent of its gross domestic product last year, compared with
4.6 percent in the United States and 3 percent in Britain.
And although Jiang did not highlight it,
China’s official budget for 2008 remained about 10 times less than
the nearly $600 billion US President George W. Bush proposed for US
defense and military spending this year.
Still, the Pentagon expressed concern on Monday
about China’s growing military might, saying a lack of
transparency posed risks to regional and international stability.
The Pentagon said in an annual report that
China’s military spending in 2007 was between $97 and $139 billion
well in excess of Beijing’s official budgeted figure of 45 billion
dollars.
In an immediate reaction to the announcement in
Beijing, Japan also said the international community remained
concerned about lack of transparency in China’s military.
The Pentagon further raised concerns over
China’s development of cruise and ballistic missiles; it’s
testing of an anti-satellite weapon last year and an apparent rise
in cyber-espionage emanating from the Asian nation.
“China’s expanding and improving military
capabilities are changing East Asian military balances; improvements
in China’s strategic capabilities have implications beyond the
Asia-Pacific region,” the Pentagon report said.
The US deputy assistant defense secretary for
East Asian affairs, David Sedney, said US officials did not know
what China’s true aims were in the military sphere.
“I think the biggest thing for people to be
concerned about, really, is the fact that we don’t have that kind
of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions,” Sedney
said. “And that leads to uncertainty.”
The Pentagon report warned that although the
situation in the Taiwan Strait remained stable, the balance of
military power was continuing to shift in China’s favor.
Jiang did not respond directly to questions
about how much of China’s military budget was focused on Taiwan,
but he warned the island that it would pay a “heavy price” if
its referendum on joining the UN was endorsed by the public.
-- AFP
|
