(TibetanReview.net, Jul20’24) – China’s economic growth may have hit a stubborn roadblock since hitting the Covid-19 pandemic brakes in 2020. Nevertheless, the country spent more on defence than the rest of Asia combined last year as President Xi Jinping progressed toward his goal of building a military to rival the United States, noted newesweek.com Jul 19, citing a peace research report.
This is based on estimates released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in an April report, which compared China’s military budget with the continent’s next eight-largest defence spenders.
China is now stated to boast more warships than the US and to be rapidly building its stockpiles of nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.
SIPRI’s estimate is reported to show that China’s military spending totalled nearly $296.4 billion in 2023, more than three times the defence budget of the second-largest spender in the region, India, at $83.6 billion. The two countries have been in a border standoff across eastern Ladakh since mid-2020.
The other ‘big’ spenders in Asia are stated to be Japan ($50.2 billion), South Korea ($47.2 billion), Taiwan ($16.6 billion), Singapore ($13.2 billion), Indonesia ($9.5 billion), Thailand ($5.8 billion) and the Philippines ($5.5 billion).
China also lays claim over more than 90% of the South China Sea maritime territory, riding roughshod over international law-based rights of other countries. Besides, it engages in grey zone warfare tactics against Taiwan, which it has vowed to annex, including by naked armed invasion if necessary.
The report notes that during a session of its rubber-stamp parliament in March, China announced a 7.2% increase in its defence budget for the year, bringing it to $236.1 billion.
But the country’s actual defence spending is believed to be far higher than its as well as SIPRI reports. In fact, the Washington, DC-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has estimated, accounting for unreported expenditures, that China’s 2022 military budget was about $711 billion, nearly equal to that of the US.
Xiao Liang, a researcher for SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, has said in the institute’s report, “China is directing much of its growing military budget to boost the combat readiness of the People’s Liberation Army.”
SIPRI generally considers national data accurate unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary. Estimates are made when official data does not align with SIPRI’s definition or lacks consistent time series coverage, the report said.