A spokesperson for China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) claims that defense spending is open and transparent, and that the annual defense spending budget is included in the draft national budget. However, Japanese experts believe that the reality is that China’s defense spending has become even more opaque through a policy of civil-military integration, such as dismantling barriers between state-owned military enterprises and private companies, and that the information made public is only part of the picture.
China’s Ministry of Finance recently released a budget report at the National People’s Congress, in which defense spending reached 1 trillion 355.3 billion yuan, a 6.8 percent increase over last year. People’s Daily reported that Chinese National People’s Congress spokesman Zhang Yesui said that China’s defense spending is open and transparent, and that China’s annual defense spending budget is included in the draft national budget, which is reviewed and approved by the National People’s Congress, and that basic data on defense spending for the previous fiscal year has been submitted to the United Nations every year since 2007.
The Kyodo News reports that Takahiro Tsuchiya, an associate professor at Kyoto apex University of Science who studies China’s defense spending, said that China used to publish its central and local defense budgets, but in recent years, due to issues such as secrecy laws, public information on defense spending has decreased and only the central portion is published. The Chinese government used to disclose the ratio of personnel costs, training and maintenance costs, and equipment costs in defense spending, but in recent years it has not been published.
According to Tsuchiya, Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s promotion of “civil-military integration” has led to progress in the development of cutting-edge military technology and weapons by civilians, but the Chinese government’s subsidies are invested in the civilian military sector, and only defense spending is visible, making it impossible to see the overall situation of military funding.
The report mentions that in addition to defense spending, China also has the concept of “military funding,” which is only a part of military funding, and the Chinese Ministry of Finance also has “special funding” for the purchase of warplanes such as the Su-27 and Su-30, as well as C-300 missiles. and other specific weapons. This framework remains largely unchanged, and the cost of building the third aircraft carrier currently under construction is likely to be covered by special funds and not included in defense spending, Tsuchiya said.
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