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The total annual growth forecast for the national economy remains at 5.5%
China will increase its defense spending by 7.1% this year, according to a preliminary report presented today at the inaugural session of the Chinese Legislature (National People’s Assembly, ANP), the most important political event of the year in the Asian country. The budget will amount to 1.45 billion yuan (229.513 million yuan, 209.646 million dollars), data that will be reviewed during the annual plenary session of the ANP, which will last until next Saturday. In this way, the progress of the Defense budget will be higher than expected for the economy as a whole, for which the authorities have set a growth target of around 5.5% for this year.
In 2021, the Asian giant’s military budget, which has remained around 1.3% of GDP in recent years, grew by 6.8% to 1.35 trillion yuan (213,685 million dollars or 195,187 million euros at the current exchange rate). The data is released after a year of rising tensions with Taiwana territory over which China claims sovereignty, and while Europe is going through a serious moment due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, one of Beijing’s main allies.
In his speech this Saturday when presenting his work report before the inaugural session of the Legislative, the prime minister, Li Keqiang, affirmed that China “will deepen the training and military preparations” to “defend the sovereignty” of the country. “We should comprehensively deepen military training and preparations, and deploy military struggle firmly and flexibly, to uphold our country’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” he said. According to the Chinese premier, China seeks to “accelerate the construction of a modern military logistics system” and put in place a system for “the modernized management of its weapons and equipment.” “We will unceasingly deepen the reform of the national defense and the Army,” he added.
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Regarding Taiwan, an island over which China claims its sovereignty, Li indicated that Beijing will “persist” in its current policies, such as the ‘one China’ principle, to “settle the issue”. “We want to promote the peaceful development of relations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as the reunification of the motherland. We will fight both the secessionist activities for ‘Taiwan independence’ and the interference of external forces in this matter,” he claimed. “We must overcome the difficulties and join efforts to make the revitalization of our nation a great and glorious cause,” he concluded.
The official also touched briefly on the country’s foreign policy, emphasizing that China “will persevere” in making it “independent and peaceful.” “China has always worked for world peace and contributed to global development. We uphold the international order and want to make new and greater contributions to promoting world peace and stability, development and prosperity,” Li said.