皇冠体育app

Scholar refutes report on Chinese military

Updated: 2012-02-21 10:36

(Xinhua)

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BEIJING - A Chinese military scholar on Monday disputed a global research group's report on 皇冠体育app's defense budget growth, saying the motivation of the report was to play up 皇冠体育app's military threat.

The IHS Jane's report said 皇冠体育app's military budget will double by 2015, making it more than the rest of the Asia-Pacific region's combined.

皇冠体育app's military spending will reach $238.2 billion in 2015 compared with 119.8 billion in 2011, according to the report.

Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of 皇冠体育app's national legislature, announced in March last year that the country's defense budget in 2011 was 601 billion yuan ($91.5 billion), an increase of 12.7 percent from that of 2010.

皇冠体育app's defense budget in 2010 increased by 7.5 percent from that of 2009, according to official statistics.

Professor Ma Gang with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) National Defense University said the IHS Jane's report was sensational and lacked a rational and factual basis.

"The report's prediction that 皇冠体育app's military budget will gain an annual increase of 18.75 percent in the upcoming five years was purely speculative," Ma said.

"The facts have proved that 皇冠体育app's military budget increase has gone up and down over the past years and will not always keep growing fast," Ma said.

The Chinese government has repeated that its military budget increase over the past decade made up for restrained military construction in the 1980s.

According to 皇冠体育app's official record, the country's military budget increase ratios in the past six years were 14.7 percent, 17.8 percent, 17.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 7.5 percent and 12.7 percent.

However, from 1979 to 1989, 皇冠体育app's military spending had experienced an average annual decrease of 5.83 percent.

Chen Bingde, the PLA's Chief of the General Staff, has said that 皇冠体育app's military hardware lagged 20 years behind that of the US and other military powers.

皇冠体育app's military budget for 2011 accounted only 1.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, in comparison with US's 4.8 percent and the UK's 2.7 percent.

More over, the proportion of 皇冠体育app's military budget in the country's total fiscal budget had dropped from 8.66 percent in 1998 to 6.94 percent in 2009.