China has raised its military budget by 7.1% for 2022, the Ministry of Finance announced today, Saturday, amid global tension over the Russian military operations in Ukraine.
This percentage is slightly higher than last year’s increase, which was 6.8%.
Beijing has allocated about 1.45 trillion yuan ($230 billion) for national defense, according to a government budget report, making China the second largest defense budget in the world after the United States.
The increase in China’s military budget coincides with rising global tension over Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, which Beijing has so far refused to condemn, saying it “understands” Moscow’s security concerns.
Commenting on the background and motives for this rise in Chinese military spending, Raed Al-Azzawi, head of the Al-Amsar Center for Strategic Studies, in Cairo, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “China is the third most powerful army in the world in terms of equipment and technologies, and in terms of the number of personnel, it is the army. First, during the past two decades, it has achieved many leaps in upgrading and modernizing its military arsenal, and has raised the pace of its combat logistical capabilities. For example, during the past five years, it has organized more than 40 large joint military exercises with the armies of 22 countries around the world.
That is why it is natural for Beijing to raise the pace of its military spending, as Al-Azzawi sees it, continuing: “To develop the capabilities of the Chinese army and its readiness, and to raise spending rates, which were 6.8% last year and now increased to 7.1%, and it is expected that the percentage will rise during the year 2023 to 8.2 %”.
The strategist elaborates on the vocabulary of the Chinese military power: “Beijing has enormous nuclear capabilities, as its army is capable of using 200 nuclear warheads, and it is believed that by 2030 it will reach a thousand nuclear warheads ready for launch and use by Chinese forces, as well as many of its large army, which More than two million soldiers.
In addition to the capabilities of developing and manufacturing conventional and unconventional weapons that characterize China, Al-Azzawi explains, “It has large and many factories specialized in military manufacturing. The Chinese army is distinguished by its advanced and creative capabilities in the field of military industrial production embodied in huge production projects in this field, It has very strong financial capabilities, so that its budgets are independent even from the official state budget, and it is constantly developing and growing.”
He continued: “For example, in August of the year 2011, during huge joint exercises between the Russian and Chinese armies, during which the Chinese demonstrated for the first time their superior capabilities and war equipment, which indicated the extent of development in the Chinese military industries, where China owns ships and battleships, which are among the strongest and largest fleets and naval pieces around The world, and the Chinese army also possesses aerospace capabilities that enable Beijing to compete for control in space, and it possesses sound weapons, various bombs and long-range missiles, which reflects high capabilities that enable it to develop its presence in space and on the ground, and in the field of military aviation, China has at least 4 Thousands of aircraft, as well as the Chinese drones, which are very advanced in this field.”
Despite all this huge arsenal and capabilities by land, sea and air, Al-Azzawi, who is also a professor of international relations at the American University in Cairo, believes that: “The Chinese military doctrine is not based on offensive and expansionist tendencies, but rather that Beijing uses its power to impose its hegemony in the region around it as a deterrent, not through Exercising bare military force, occupation and expansion, and it uses it even for the purposes of establishing peace and stability in its vital field and around the world. For example, it has always been said that China will attack Taiwan militarily, which did not happen because Beijing believes that solving problems and crises is always possible through dialogue and diplomacy, which is It differs here from Moscow and Russian military doctrine, as we now observe in the Ukrainian crisis.”
On the background of increasing Beijing’s military budget, Al-Azzawi responds: “China has recently raised military spending rates within a plan established since 2020, at specific rates set by the Ministry of Defense. From its army, it is ahead of Beijing militarily and technologically, due to its open and huge military spending rates, which is why the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense decided to raise and strengthen spending rates on military, technological and nuclear missile capabilities.
This reveals that there is a global arms race between the major powers and apprehension among them, as the strategic expert believes, adding: “And Beijing’s concern is that it may be the weakest army compared to the armies of major capitals, such as Washington, Moscow and Paris, according to the concerns of the Chinese military leadership, but the policy maker The Chinese, however, do not want to enter into wars and military adventures, because China depends mainly on developing its economic power, and any wide war would paralyze the Chinese economy, which is completely dependent on stability and Beijing’s balanced regional and international policies.
Al-Azzawi adds: “That is why China is looking for political and military stability in its surroundings and around the world, a key to economic stability, because wars, unrest and crises naturally impede development and the economy, and for this reason it overcomes diplomatic solutions and a policy of common interests. For example, with the Russian-Ukrainian war, we note how the markets were negatively affected.” Global energy, despite significantly raising its military spending rates, but Beijing remains keen to go on its usual course of persevering in developing its gigantic economic and development capabilities, without noise and bravado to the extent that economists’ expectations indicate that it will become the number one economic power in the world in the near term, and in general The increase of the Chinese military agreement is part of strengthening China’s deterrent power, and its position as an international player that cannot be ignored.”
As for Eid Al-Flood, a military expert, he says in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “The increase in the size of the Chinese military budget falls within the framework of China’s efforts to fortify its power and enhance its capabilities more and more, amidst the sharp polarization with the West, especially in light of the crisis in Ukraine, because that The increase in spending is directly proportional to the fact that China has the largest army in the world numerically, and that it is in a heated competition specifically with the United States, as it is known.
China, by virtue of being a major global and industrial power, has very advanced military leaps, especially in the areas of missile systems, satellites and aircraft, as the military expert explains, continuing: It has a thousand accounts, especially with the diversification and continuous modernization of its war arsenals, and its close cooperation in this particular field with Russia.”