China on Sunday announced an increased defense budget for 2023 amid distrust from its Asian neighbors, the United States and even now NATO amid its surge in power.
The increase, the biggest since 2019, will be 7.2%, a slight acceleration compared to last year (+7.1%), according to a Treasury Department report released during Parliament’s annual session.
China will spend 1,553.7 billion yuan ($225 billion) on defense. This makes it the second largest military budget in the world after that of the United States – about three times as large.
However, skepticism surrounds the Chinese numbers.
“Much of its military research, such as missiles, cyber defense, etc., is not included in military spending but is considered civilian research and development,” Niklas Swanström, director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, told AFP in Stockholm.
China’s defense budget growth remains below 10% for the eighth consecutive year.
But it arouses suspicion from neighboring countries that have territorial disputes with China.
This is particularly true of India (sometimes skirmishes along their disputed Himalayan border), Japan (to gain control of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands), and the Philippines (too sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea regularly to incidents). .
Westerners also say they are concerned.
Top American officials recently accused China of wanting to invade Taiwan, an island it claims, within a few years, or of having a “fleet” of military balloons spying on the entire world.
The People’s Liberation Army in numbers
- It employs 2,035,000 men and women;
- They are distributed in particular between the land (965,000), air (395,000) and naval forces (260,000) or even the unit in charge of strategic missiles (120,000);
- China has about 350 nuclear warheads;
- China has three aircraft carriers, only two of which are currently operational. A third is currently being tested at sea;
- China has only one military base abroad (in Djibouti).
” Challenge “
Even the traditionally European-centric NATO has viewed the Asian giant as a “challenge” to the “interests” of allies since last year.
China defends itself by portraying its army as purely “defensive” and stressing that it has only one military base abroad (in Djibouti) – versus several hundred for the United States.
Additionally, its military spending is under 2% of its GDP, compared to about 3% for Washington.
But how does China use this money?
“It will be used to increase troops’ salaries, fund better training conditions and get more advanced equipment,” said James Char, a Chinese army expert at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore.
In addition, “China is investing in its ability to take control of Taiwan and keep the United States out of the region,” notes Niklas Swanstrom.
Incursions by Chinese military planes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz) have nearly doubled over the past year as Beijing ramped up its pressure on the island.
For its part, China condemns the United States’ deployment of military ships and aircraft to the region to challenge Chinese claims there, and is concerned about Washington’s strengthening of its military cooperation with Australia, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan in recent months.
Japan too
“Northeast Asia is the scene of an arms race and Chinese reinforcements are the driving force,” Mr Swanstrom said.
Other countries in the region have therefore increased their military budgets for 2023, such as South Korea (+4.4%) and India (+13%).
Japan has just revised its defense doctrine and intends to double its defense budget to 2% of GDP by 2027, particularly in response to China.
“China has been a challenge to the West and the United States-led international order since the end of World War II,” notes James Char.
“But militarily — at least in the short to medium term — it is certain that it is not prepared to challenge Washington’s status as the world’s number one military power,” and the Chinese military “is likely to continue conducting military operations below the threshold of war,” he emphasizes.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), the United States is the country with the highest military spending at $801 billion in 2021 according to the latest available figures.
Next are China (293), India (76.6), the United Kingdom (68.4), Russia (65.9) and France (56.6).