With the new development of the worldwide revolution in military affairs (RMA), China needs to invest more to promote the mechanization and informatization of its armed forces, to push forward its reform of national defense and the armed forces, to equip the forces with advanced weapons and equipment.
With the economic and social development and the rise of the people's living standards, Chinese service personnel's living standards also need to be improved. China's oil input to guarantee regular military training and living conditions of service personnel also changes with the fluctuating international oil prices.
To meet the requirements of its diversified military missions, China needs to strengthen its military forces'capability in emergency rescue, disaster relief, anti-terrorism and maintenance of stability. In turn China needs to provide advanced equipment and facilities, to organize professional training and military exercises, to improve the working and living conditions of border and coastal defense forces, units in remote and tough areas, and help armed forces and units hit by the Wenchuan Earthquake to rebuild their infrastructure and facilities. All these require large amounts of funds.
In order to meet the requirements of engaging more actively in international cooperation and shouldering more international obligations, China needs to strengthen and expand its military exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, such as participating in UN peacekeeping missions, anti-terrorism, emergency rescue, anti-piracy activities and regional security cooperation, so as to safeguard world peace and stability and to promote common development. China's soldiers have won the world's praise in several international earthquake relief activities. And the Chinese navy is currently carrying out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters.
Thirdly, although some western nations make a fuss about China's defense budget, their concerns are totally groundless. Each year before and after the NPC and CPPCC sessions, these nations try to sensationalize China's military expenditure and claim that China's published defense budget is not transparent and does not reflect reality, and exceeds its real need for defense. They try to spread the China threat theory and tarnish China's image so as to contain China's development.
The argument over China's defense budget is not an academic debate about statistics and calculation methods but a political one about ideology. Some say that China has so-called "hidden military expenditure". According to the Budget Law and the National Defense Law, China incorporates its annual defense budget into its draft national budget which has to be deliberated by the NPC each year. So China has no "hidden defense expenditure". With regard to how much and where to invest defense funds, there is no common international standard. The Chinese government began to submit annual reports on military expenditure to the United Nations in 2007. The white paper on China's national defense in 2008 disclosed basic data on the changes of China's defense spending in the past 30 years, made a qualitative and quantitative analysis of each decade's defense spending, and set out the relationship between the growth of defense expenditure and the growth of national fiscal expenditure. All these facts demonstrated China's candidness and openness about its defense spending.
Fourthly, China's increased military power will help to promote world peace. China is pursuing a road of peaceful development and will not engage in any arms race or military expansion. The idea of pursuing peace, harmony is ingrained in the Chinese mind and has become an intrinsic value.
Since 1840 the Chinese people have undergone many hardships because they were unable to defend their own territories. They crave a powerful and consolidated defense force and the restoration of the Chinese nation. The hard-won environment of peaceful development is even more valuable to them. Such historical experience means China will be a staunch force for maintaining lasting world peace and common prosperity.
China's relations with the outside world have also experienced historical changes at the new stage of the 21st century. China cannot develop in isolation of the world, and needs a peaceful and stable international environment for its development; the world also needs China and the prosperity of the world needs a powerful China. In an era of globalization, informatization and polarization, China's development of its comprehensive strength, including its defense forces, will help to promote regional and world peace, stability and prosperity. As the financial crisis spreads to the whole world, it is proving and will continue to prove that China's development will not become a threat to the world peace and development. On the contrary it will bring new opportunities for world peace and development.
The author is a defense expert in China.
(China.org.cn, translated by Zhang Ming'ai, March 13, 2009)