China defence budget for 2007 up a massive 17.8 per cent

Beijing: China's defence budget is set to soar by a massive 17.8 per cent in 2007 over actual spending in 2006, a senior official announced Sunday. The hike, expectedly, drew a sharp response from the United States, which said it wanted to know more about the Asian giant's "military build-up".

Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People's Congress, the Chinese legislature, said that China's armed forces will get 350.9 billion yuan (about $45bn) for 2007, which will mark a rise of nearly 53 billion yuan over actual spending in 2006. Enzhu took the trouble to emphasise that though China had "gradually been boosting its military expenditure," it had however been "coordinating national defence with economic development."

This however failed to cut ice with the US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, who told reporters just hours after the announcement, that he would like to know more about Chinese "intentions."

"The way I phrase our concern is the concern about transparency and the desire to have a more extensive dialogue with China on what their military build-up involves, what the doctrine is that underlies it, and what their intentions are," he said. Negroponte was speaking in Beijing, which he is currently visiting.

His statement also backed up sentiments expressed by US vice president Dick Cheney a little more than a week ago, when he said that China's military build-up clashed with its repeated claims to be a peaceful power. Cheney had cited a Chinese ballistic missile test in January this year, which destroyed one of its own satellites in space, as evidence of stepped up militarisation by the communist regime.
The anti-satellite test had drawn a sharp response from a number of countries around the world, particularly those located on the rim of China's vast boundaries. The test also saw the announcement by the Indian Government to establish an aerospace command under the aegis of the Indian Air Force.

Across the straits…
China has spelled out its defence spending for 2007 just a day after issuing a very strong response to US plans to sell 450 air and ground missiles to it's arch rival, Taiwan.
Spokesman Enzhu reiterated earlier Chinese threats aimed at the island nation, saying that constitutional reform efforts by current Taiwan president, Chen Shui-bian, were moving the island dangerously towards formal independence, and warned against such moves.

Unlike mainland China, Taiwan is a democracy, and changing governments and policies in the island periodically bring it at loggerheads with an unchanging regime at Beijing.

"To resolutely contain the separatist activities of Taiwan independence forces and safeguard peace in the Taiwan Strait is the most important and urgent task facing compatriots on both sides of the strait," Enzhu said. He reiterated that China "will never tolerate an independent Taiwan and will never permit anyone under any form to split Taiwan from the mainland."

In turn, a Taiwan government spokesman said that the budget increase marked "China's rising threat" to the island, and that real expenditure could actually be higher.

Observers point out that China has increased its military spending by more than 10 per cent every year over the past 15 years. Spending was up 14.7 per cent in 2006 and 12.6 per cent in 2005.

US officials dispute Chinese figures with respect to their annual defence spending, and like to peg it at double, and more, of officially stated amounts. US officials put current Chinese defence spending, for 2006, at between $80-115 billion, which would make it the highest in the world after the United States. These figures also make nonsense of official Chinese figures of $35 billion, which Beijing said it had spent on defence in 2006.