Ex-general calls for 12 per cent increase in China’s military spending
Wang Hongguang cites US plan to increase spending by up to US$54 billion
A retired PLA general called on Beijing to raise its defence budget by 12 per cent this year, saying China needed to match US plans for a surge of up to 10 per cent in its military expenditures.
“The US defence budget has increased by 10 per cent and we need at least a double-digit increase. The most ideal is 12 per cent,” said Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang, a retired deputy commander of the former Nanjing Military Command, on the sidelines of the opening ceremony for the annual Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference session on Friday.
Wang’s call came ahead of the release of next year’s defence budget by the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Sunday.
Military analysts have urged Beijing to resume double-digit rises in defence spending this year, to cover the extra costs incurred in a military overhaul launched by President Xi Jinping, aimed at transforming the PLA into a smaller but more modern fighting force.
The NPC announced defence expenditures of 954 billion yuan (US$1.07 trillion) in 2016. That amounted to 7.6 per cent growth on the previous year, the first single-digit increase since 2010, surprising many PLA watchers.
“I proposed a double-digit rise last year, but it turned out to be a bit more than seven per cent, which is far below what I expected,” said Wang, also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
“We have had a tight military budget for years, it is no good if we keep making it that way.”
Wang said China was facing external threats, including US aircraft carriers patrolling in the South China Sea and a US military presence in South Korea.
Known for his hard-line, nationalistic rhetoric, Wang accused US President Donald Trump of pushing relations between the mainland and Taiwan to a critical point.
Wang had been quoted earlier by the tabloid Global Times as saying China could “unify Taiwan [by force] in less than 100 hours, if it can block the Western Pacific and surround the battlefield from the interior”.
But Wang yesterday noted the relatively smooth meeting on Monday between Trump and Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat.
“We still have to wait and see what Trump will do next,” he said.
