China will increase its military budget by 12.2 percent to around Rp1.500 trillion ( 131.57 million U.S. dollars ) to strengthen air defense and coastal areas as well as building modern weaponry , the government said in a statement in Beijing on Wednesday .
The budget for the People's Liberation Army ( PLA ) - which is currently the strength of 2.3 million personnel - the government announced during the opening of the annual meeting of parliament .
In the last ten years , China is almost always raised military spending to two digits .
" We will continue to improve the strength of the Chinese military continues to modernize its equipment and strengthen its combat capabilities in the information age , " said Prime Minister Li Keqiang told the MPs .
Li added that China would " deepen the national defense research and development of high-tech weaponry tool " and also " strengthen the defenses in the border region , coastal , and air . "
China's military spending is currently the second highest in the world after the United States . The amount of the budget that makes Beijing was able to build a modern force to be feared in the South China Sea - which is still disputed .
Analysts said the military budget in real terms will increase to 200 million U.S. dollars . By comparison , the United States allocated 526 million dollars for the Department of Defense this year .
Despite the big budget , analysts estimate that China still needs several decades to be able to match the ability of the U.S. military .
U.S. Defense Ministry official , David Helvey , said on Tuesday that the Pentagon intends to build a relationship "healthy " with China , but on the other hand assert Beijing to be more transparent about its military development .
" We are still concerned about the lack of transparency regarding China's growing military strength and increasingly aggressive naval countries in the region , " said Halvey .
China itself repeatedly stated that the world does not need to worry about China's military budget that is needed for a clear and legitimate purpose .
Even so , some of China 's neighbors are increasingly worried associated continuous increase Beijing's military spending .
China is still in dispute with Japan over ownership of islands linked the East China Sea .
Beijing is also at odds with a number of Southeast Asian countries related to the ownership of the South China Sea region is believed to be rich in oil and gas .
No comments:
Post a Comment