China will increase its defence spending by 7.2 per cent in 2024 as Beijing adopts a tougher language against Taiwan.
According to official reports, this year’s military budget has increased almost twice under Xi Jinping’s more than a decade in office. The increase matches last year’s rate and exceeds the government’s growth forecast.
As China released the budget figures, it has also hardened its stance against Taiwan, reported Reuters. Moreover, the government work delivered by Premier Li Qiang at the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Tuesday did not mention the “peaceful reunification”.
In recent years, tensions have risen steadily over Taiwan and elsewhere across East Asia as regional military developments rise in the democratically ruled island that China claims as its own.
Li Mingjiang, a defence scholar at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, said that Taiwan is a prominent concern for Beijing’s defence spending despite a suffering Chinese economy. “China is showing that in the coming decade it wants to grow its military to the point where it is prepared to win a war if it has no choice but to fight one,” Li said.
Xi Jinping became the president and commander-in-chief of China in 2013. Since then, China’s defence budget has risen to 1.67 trillion yuan ($230.60 billion) in 2024 from 720 billion yuan in 2013.
During his time in office, the increase in military spending has consistently surpassed the annual domestic economic growth target. According to the government work report, the growth target is about five per cent in 2024, the same as last year’s goal.
According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), China has raised its defence spending for the 30th year straight. In a research published in February 2024, the IISS said that new military equipment purchases might be the most prominent portion of the military budget.
However, despite the defence budget outpacing the GDP growth, the defence spending has stayed at about 1.3 per cent of the overall GDP in the last decade, said James Char, a security scholar at the RSIS. “Of course, the country’s longer-term economic fortunes will determine whether this can be sustained going forward,” he added.
China has restated the call for “reunification” with Taiwan in the government work report. It dropped the descriptor “peaceful,” used in previous reports, highlighting that it wants to “be firm” in doing so.
(With inputs from agencies)
