Beijing: Amid speculation over another big hike in its defence budget, China on Tuesday defended its high military spending already about USD 117.7 billion, saying “peace can only be preserved with strength”.
“Based on our history and experience, we believe that peace can only be maintained by strength,” Fu Ying, spokesperson of China’s parliament, told reporters responding to a question over China’s growing military power sparking concerns in the neighbourhood.
China’s military spending has long been cited as a cause for concern in western countries. The 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army is the world’s largest. “We have heard such concerns…Indeed, certain countries have been selling the idea of China as a major threat.”
Last year, China raised its defence budget by 10.7 per cent to 720.2 billion yuan (USD 117.7 billion). It also hiked its internal security budget which is few billion dollars over the defence budget. From India’s point of view, China’s defence spending is far higher than its USD 36 billion allocated during the interim budget last month.
China is expected continue the increase of defence spending this eyar in view of deepening differences with Japan over the disputed islands. Chinese defence analysts said Beijing which is modernising its forces, formulates its defence budget to relatively match US defence spending amounting to USD 700 billion. Fu was widely expected to announce this year’s defence budget but she did not reveal the figures at her press conference.
Observers said the new defence figures may be mentioned in the work report to be presented by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to the National People’s Congress. Defending China’s defence spending, Fu said: “We Chinese might ask, can a prosperous country such as China really achieve peace without a strong national defence?” “It’s not good news to the world that a country as large as China is unable to protect itself.” (PTI)
Fu said China’s defence policy is entirely defencive in nature, has never treated any country as an enemy or a threat. Cooperation is the main theme of China’s relations with its neighbouring countries, she said, adding that China has always advocated peaceful solutions to territorial and maritime disputes with other countries. “For disputes which cannot be settled in the short term, we could always set them aside, or negotiate joint development plans,” said Fu, who added that a country’s military power should be viewed in terms of its future policy trends. However, China will “respond effectively” to provocations by those ready to sabotage regional security and order “for the sake of China’ s own territorial sovereignty, as well as for the protection of regional order and peace,” she said. Commenting on the US pivot to Asia, Fu said although the US had repeatedly stress that it does not have a specific strategy to contain China and that it had not target China, “we still have to see whether its words match its deeds”. “It is my understanding that both China and the US are willing to expand cooperation, and we sincerely hope that interactions between China and the US in Asia are cooperation- oriented on a general term,” she said. (PTI)
