?A major general said yesterday that China has no intention
of large-scale military expansion, even though its military
spending has grown in recent years.
"Along with its economic growth, China has increased national
defense spending in recent years, but this has mainly been to
improve the living conditions of military officers and soldiers,"
said Ding Jiye, also head of the finance office of the General
Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Singapore on June 4
that he could not understand why China increased its military
expenditure when it was under no threat from other countries.
Reiterating the remarks on Tuesday of a foreign ministry
spokesperson, Ding told Xinhua News Agency that China had neither
the intention nor the capability to carry out a large-scale
military expansion.
China set a 244.7 billion yuan (US$29.48 billion) budget for
national defense in 2005, up 12.6 percent on 2004.
"A large part of the increase has gone on raising wages,
improving clothing and raising subsidies. It is necessary if only
the price rise factor is taken into account," said Ding.
As civilians benefit from economic growth, living conditions of
military personnel should also be improved, he added.
The funds have also been used for organizational reform, which
has included cutting the number of military personnel and employing
civil servants. A reduction of 200,000 military personnel was part
of the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).
"Extra expenses are needed to cover arrangements for both
retired and newly employed personnel," Ding said.
He said moderate increases in weapons spending have gone towards
keeping up with global accelerated military developments, and
research, new equipment and training all require money to modernize
the military, enhance mechanization and create a better information
infrastructure.
Ding said despite the growth in military spending in recent
years, China's national defense expenditure remained far behind
other major countries in the world in many areas, including
aggregate amount, ratio in GDP and per capita military
spending.
The foreign ministry said at its regular press conference on
Tuesday that last year, US military spending was US$ 455.9 billion,
17.8 times that of China. In terms of per capita military spending,
the US figure is 77 times that of China.
"Any words or deeds that create and exaggerate China's military
threat will do harm to regional peace and stability," said ministry
spokesperson Liu Jianchao.
(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2005)