China to boost military spending by 11.6%

China announced today an 11.6% increase in military spending for 2004, a bigger increase than last year in an age when the People’s Liberation Army is racing to make itself competitive and adapt to a hi-tech world.

The figures came in a budget report prepared for delivery by finance minister Jin Renqing at the National People’s Congress, the country’s nominal parliament.

They were released at a time when the government has publicly prioritised social programmes – and two weeks before the Taiwanese election, which includes a public-opinion referendum on the missiles that the mainland has pointed at the island.

Jin did not give a total for military spending, but said outlays this year would increase by 21.8 billion yuan (€2.1bn).

Last year’s announced military budget was €20.9bn, although the actual figure is believed to be higher.

This year’s increase was allotted “in order to improve the defensive combat readiness of the armed forces under hi-tech conditions and to raise the salaries of army personnel and the pensions for ex-servicemen”, Jin said.

“In addition, we must work hard to ensure adequate funding for other expenditures that have a direct overall bearing on reform, development and stability,” he added.

The announcement puts China back into double-digit defence increases – a pattern it had adhered to for 13 straight years until last year’s 9.6% increase.

A good portion of the military budget is expected to help cover personnel costs. Many Chinese soldiers are poorly paid, and officers as highly ranked as generals have expressed dissatisfaction at the funding given their operation.

The 2.5 million-member PLA is the world’s largest military. Its chief concern at the moment is the question of Taiwan, the island that the Beijing leadership regards as sovereign territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.

But China has also begun using the influence of its military for diplomatic purposes.

It is starting to dabble in peacekeeping operations, and after Liberia switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to China last year, Beijing responding by sending a PLA water-supply team to the impoverished country.

Relations between the American and Chinese militaries, which hit a low point in 2001 after the mid-air collision of a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet off China’s southern coast, are on the mend as well.

Defence minister Cao Gangchuan has visited the United States recently and earlier this year the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Richard Myers, visited Beijing and was given a rare glimpse into the headquarters of China’s military-linked space programme, which put its first astronaut into space in October.