By Kathrin Hille in Beijing
A prominent Chinese economist has called for a steep rise in the country’s defence spending, an appeal likely to reinforce US concerns about the pace of China’s military expansion ahead of a visit to Beijing by Robert Gates, defence secretary.
Maj Gen Jiang Luming, head of the Institute for Defence Economics at China’s National Defence University, said in an article on Wednesday that China needed to increase its military spending from the current level of 1.4 per cent of gross domestic product to up to 2.8 per cent, in order to close the gap with military technology in developed countries.
His appeal – which appeared in Study Times, the newspaper of the Communist party’s Central Party School – is part of intense lobbying efforts in readiness for the final draft of Beijing’s next five-year plan, which will determine funding for many departments and industries up until 2015. The military is pushing for a sustained effort to build China’s indigenous military industrial capacity.
The call for a spending increase will further fuel concerns in the US and several of China’s neighbours, about a more assertive military stance from Beijing.
During the past month, revelations surrounding three major Chinese arms projects – the long-awaited confirmation of China’s aircraft carrier programme, US claims that China is deploying a missile to threaten US carriers, and pictures revealing tests of Beijing’s first stealth fighter – have done little to quell these concerns.
China put the increase in its official defence expenditure at 7.5 per cent last year, the first increase below 10 per cent since 1989, in an attempt to counter a “China threat” perception and reassure the international community about the country’s rise. The official defence budget for 2010 was Rmb532bn ($80.8bn).
But independent observers believe Beijing’s total military spending is much higher. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), China’s 2009 expenditure was second only to the US at US$100bn, or 2 per cent of its GDP. Sipri estimates that China increased its military expenditure by 217 per cent between 2000 and 2009, faster than any other major country.
Chinese government and military officials dismiss fears that their country’s military is overblown.
“Due to a relative lack in funding, the pace of our military’s modernisation has suffered,” Gen Jiang said. “Even though the standard of our weaponry has been raised more in recent years, the reality is that our overall arms equipment standard still lags far behind the main developed nations has not changed in principle.”
Sipri figures put China’s defence spending at 2 per cent of GDP, while the US spends 4.5 per cent of GDP.
