By Wang Qiang

According to the government budget draft report released by the Ministry of Finance on March 5, China's 2023 military budget is 1.5537 trillion yuan (about US$ 224.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent, and a 0.1 percent increase over 2022. After the announcement of the military budget, it received some criticism from the American and Western media as usual. They exaggerated the "big increase" of 0.1 percent in China's military expenditure and expressed "worries" about China's military development.

Since 2022, due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, military expenditures have generally increased around the world. Of course, some countries have their own security concerns, but there are also quite a few countries whose military expenditures have increased significantly beyond the reasonable needs of maintaining their own security.

The total defense budget passed by the US Congress in December 2022 exceeds US$ 850 billion, an increase of nearly 14 percent compared with that of the previous year. The 2023 fiscal year budget just passed by the Japanese House of Representatives on February 28 increased defense spending to approximately 6.8 trillion yen, which is 1.26 times compared with that of the 2022 fiscal year. Moreover, Japan has decided to double its defense spending to meet NATO's requirement of two percent of GDP. Compared with these countries, China's defense budget has always remained at around 1.4 percent to 1.5 percent of GDP, and the 2023 growth rate is only 0.1 percent.

Comprehensively measured around the world, the expenditure and increase of the Chinese armed forces are very restrained. It is difficult for any rational person to regard this restraint as the so-called "expansion" of military strategy. Obviously, some people criticize the growth of China's defense budget not because they are unaware of the truth, but because they have ulterior motives and are hypocritical.

For any army in the world, a certain level of military expenditure is needed to maintain and steadily improve its combat capability. Over the past years, China's military expenditure has remained at above US$ 200 billion with efforts made to accelerate the leapfrog development of weapons and equipment, which has laid a solid material foundation for the construction of military combat capabilities. Although the scale of this military expenditure is not low in terms of the total amount, in the context of the reality of China's military construction, it is still at a stage of "making up for lost time" and "catching up with the trend".

Building a consolidated national defense and a strong military commensurate with China's international status and in line with national security and development interests is essential to realizing the goal of national rejuvenation. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) specifically requests that the People’s Army should strengthen the normalized and diversified use of military power. Accomplishing these also requires support of continuous military spending. This indicates that a certain level of military spending is a necessary measure to maintain national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Moreover, military demand drives industrial innovation, which is also the common experience of developed industrialized countries. A considerable part of the country’s military investment will be used for the modernization of weapons and equipment. This investment increases the demand in the industrial production sector and stimulates technological innovation, enhances economic vitality, and benefits the country and the people.

It can be said that China adheres to the strategic guidance of the overall national security outlook, and emphasizes the common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept. Military means are the necessary and guaranteed means for us to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests. In addition, other means of maintaining security are becoming more and more abundant. The current amount of military expenditure is rational and scientific, which fully demonstrates that adhering to the unity of building a prosperous country and a strong military and sticking to the path of peaceful development with determination is always our strategic choice.

Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.