China has increased its defense budget to 7.2 percent. Now the budget has become 224 billion dollars i.e. about 18 lakh crore rupees. Struggling with the declining economy, the dragon has once again expressed its intentions by increasing the defense budget.
Explaining the reason for this increase in the meeting of China’s Parliament National People’s Congress, spokesperson Wang Chao said that the budget has been increased to deal with the security challenges.
This is the eighth year when an increase in the military budget has been announced in China. It is clear that even though China is struggling with bad economic conditions, it is preparing itself for war. Prime Minister Li Keqiang says, the defense budget has been increased to run military operations and to increase war preparations.
After America, China is the biggest spender in the defense sector. Comparing it with India, China’s defense budget is three times more.
India’s defense budget for 2023-24 has been fixed at Rs 5.94 lakh crore (about US $ 72.6 billion). At the same time, according to the news, with an increase of 7.2 percent, China’s defense budget has now become 224 billion dollars i.e. about 18 lakh crore rupees. Which is three times more than India.
Last year China’s defence budget was $230 billion. Let us now understand how far China will go ahead of India in terms of defence.
First talk on India. Presenting the budget on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman increased the previous defense budget from Rs 5.25 lakh crore to Rs 5.94 lakh crore for 2023-24.
Amid reports of tension from China on the borders of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 1 lakh 62 thousand crore has been set aside for military expenditure in the budget.
From these, new weapons, aircraft, warships and other equipment useful for the army will be purchased. If we compare it with last year, then this year there has been an increase of about 10 thousand crores.
Realizing the importance of construction of roads on the Indian border, the budget has been increased. Increasing the defence budget is part of China’s well thought out strategy.
At present, China’s capacity to manufacture weapons is very high. China ranks fourth after America, Russia and France in terms of arms exports. China has three of the world’s top 10 arms companies.
Looking at the record of arms sales, China’s North Industries Group Corporation is at the third position after America’s Lockheed Martin and Northrup Gruman Corporation.
The condition of China in the defense sector was not always the same. During the Soviet Union, the People’s Liberation Army of China was largely dependent on Russian weapons. China learned a lot from the Soviet Union. This is the reason why the impression of the Soviet Union is seen in Chinese weapons and fighter jets.
Over time, the field of arms manufacturing in China began to move forward rapidly. Russian technology and improved its old missile system. Developed weapon system. Still China is making Soviet era weapons. This is the reason why arms are being exchanged between the two countries.
The report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says that from 2016 to 2021, 81 percent of the arms imported by China were sent by Russia.
Significantly, this increase in its defence expenditure by China has been done at a time when the tension on the Ladakh and Arunachal border has not subsided for the last almost two years.
To reduce the tension, some solution has been found even in the 15th round of talks. On the other hand, China’s military and political tension with America is increasing.
The quad alliance formed against China has also increased the concerns of China.
Apart from all this, China is not going to back down from its expansionist policies. Perhaps that is why China is continuously increasing its defense budget.
It should be noted that this is the eighth consecutive year when the percentage of increase in China’s defense budget was limited to single digits, but compared to India, its defense budget is much higher.
It is also worth mentioning here that in terms of defence budget, China is still far behind America.
After this announcement, China has become the second largest spender on defense after America.
America’s defence budget used to be about four times more than that of China, which is now only three and a half times more. In recent years, China has made several major military reforms to increase its military strength.
Under these reforms, it expanded the navy and air force giving priority to increase his influence in other countries.
Now China is preparing a new robot army and has started deploying it near the Indian border.
China has also established military villages near the Indian border. While it has also reduced the number of soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army by three lakhs.
Despite this, the PLA is still the largest army in the world with a military strength of two million.
Following this defence policy, China is becoming the world’s largest naval power, leaving America behind.
The number of warships and submarines that have been inducted in the Chinese Navy in the last two years may not be as many as in the US Navy. Even after the increase of so many weapons, his hunger has not reduced.
It may be noted that China is engaged in fulfilling the resolution taken by Chinese President Xi Jinping some time ago to make its navy the world’s largest naval force.
By the year 2020, China has deployed more than 360 warships. This expansionist policy of China will not take long to push the world into a new war in the coming times. China does not want to leave any stone unturned to increase its strategic capability.
While justifying the increase in the defence budget, China is also saying that America is militarizing the Asia-Pacific region.
Especially the tension regarding the South China Sea is the highest. According to China’s policy makers, the defense budget has been increased in view of the focus on making the army state-of-the-art. China’s focus is on developing new military capabilities including stealth fighter aircraft, aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles.
To increase its dominance, China is expanding the reach of the Navy in the sea areas. The main thrust of this year’s defense budget will be on the development of the Navy, because of its claims on the South China Sea and the East China Sea, and in terms of maritime traffic, tensions have increased in the region.
Apart from this, in view of the volatile security situation in the Asia Pacific region, it has to be prepared as a response.
In this way it becomes clear that China wants to be at the top in the military field as compared to the powerful countries of the world. In such a situation, India will need to be aware of the increase in China’s defense budget. In the matter of arms, the friendship between China and Russia can create difficulties for India including countries around the world.
According to the United Nations report, China can easily supply the kind of artillery shells that Russia needs because the Chinese company has the raw material as well as the ability to manufacture them.
China has a large stock of Russian fighter jets and missile systems. If the situation worsens in the coming days, then China can supply them to Russia.
It will be very easy for Russia because both countries are similar in terms of technology used in weapons.
The situation between India and China is already not normal. In such a situation, China can become a big problem.
