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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 China’s military spending is a stimulus bid: analyst
The Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines during exercises in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. Photo: AP
ALSO STRATEGIC: The analyst said militarized public investment is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s economic vision to emphasize ‘internal circulation’
By Wu Su-wei and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
China’s soaring military spending amid a COVID-19 pandemic slump is a dual bid to stimulate the economy and obtain strategic capabilities, a defense analyst said after Beijing yesterday unveiled a 1.36 trillion yuan （US$210 billion） defense budget.
According to China’s general budget for fiscal 2021, its defense spending is to grow by 6.8 percent, compared with 6.6 percent in the previous fiscal year.
The military spending increase comes as China’s economy grew by just 2.3 percent last year, the lowest year-on-year economic gain in two decades.
The perennial growth of China’s military budget is driven mainly by political and military needs, said Su Tzu-yun （蘇紫雲）, director of the Institute of National Defense and Strategic Research’s division of defense strategy and resources.
The priorities of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army this year include putting a third aircraft carrier to sea, construction of Type 075 helicopter dock vessels, and development of ice-breaking Type 096 ballistic submarines and Xian H-20 stealth bombers, Su said.
The systems would help China tighten its grip on the first island chain and project military power to the second island chain in line with Beijing’s geostrategic and military goals, while also stimulating the economy, he said.
Initiated soon after Chinese President Xi Jinping （習近平） took office, militarized public capital investment is part of his economic vision to emphasize “internal circulation,” Su said.
“Internal circulation” refers to the domestic cycle of production, distribution and consumption that supplements external trade.
The budget shows that defense spending is part of Beijing’s answer to COVID-19 and the US-China trade dispute, which is taking a toll on the Chinese economy, Su said.
For example, Xi’s naval expansion helps the shipbuilding industry survive when the pandemic is hurting shipbuilders around the world, in addition to hardening China’s sea lines of communication and enabling force projection, he said.
China’s actual defense spending is likely to exceed what the Beijing publicly states by 40 percent because of “unpublicized portions” of the budget, he said, citing Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
Inclusive of secret portions of the budget, the budget would be close to 1.9 trillion yuan, which would rise to the equivalent of US$461.7 billion after adjusting for a purchasing power disparity of 1.57, Su said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
