By Ling Shengli

The Military Balance 2021, a report recently released by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, noted a new high in global military spending in 2020 and claimed that it was partly driven by China’s naval expansion. Well, China is not to be scapegoated for this. The country is in no way to blame for the rising military spending, when it comes to the composition of the increment, or the relationship between military expenditure and economic growth, or the impact on global and regional security.

All data – including the percentage of total military spending, growth rate and absolute amount – point to the US being the chiefly responsible party for the mounting military expenditure of the world. In 2020, the country’s military spending took up such a large portion of the world’s total that it, so to speak, single-handedly raised the overall level, with an increase of more than US$53 billion from the previous year that also took up 2/3 of the global increment. As to the relation between military spending and economic growth, the US economy shrank 3.5% in 2020, but its military spending went up 7.8% - what a striking and cruel contrast!

As far as security policy is concerned, what the US did has made the global security situation much more complicated, which again was an important driver of the rise of global military spending.

First, with military conflicts taking place around the world, the US, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has not been active enough to mediate and promote negotiations to cool down regional tension.

Second, the US instead has aggravated the tension in certain regions. Its continuous pressuring on Venezuela in South America and on Iran and the DPRK in Asia has exerted incredibly negative impacts on regional security and stability.

Third, believing the world has entered a period of major-power competition, the US views China and Russia as its chief strategic rivals and has kept exerting security pressure on them.

On the one hand, Washington has been pushing its “Indo-Pacific strategy” with Japan, India, and Australia and has frequently made dangerous military maneuvers in the South China Sea. On the other hand, it has been pushing NATO to intensify military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe, the strategic hinterland of Russia, and has staged military exercises there frequently, forcing Moscow to take firm countermeasures defending its strategic security space and interests.

In the past few years, some western countries or forces, turning a blind eye to America’s role in driving up the world’s military expending, have kept hyping up the so-called issue of China’s military spending and spreading false accusations of its over-fast defense budget increase, in the attempt to pin the blame on Beijing. What they said cannot be farther from the truth. China’s national defense expenditure is well within reason.

First, the percentage of China’s defense expenditure in its GDP is contracting. Since the country launched the reform and opening-up, its defense expenditure has gone through a shift from minimal maintenance to moderate growth. It has been in keeping with the economic and fiscal spending on the whole. Although the COVID-19 pandemic lent a heavy blow to all countries in 2020, China was the only major economy that scored a positive economic growth, meaning its defense expenditure increase is well-founded on a sound economic foundation rather than being unreasonable.

Second, China, upholding a national defense policy that’s defensive in nature, has never had any part in aggravating regional or global security situations. The Chinese defense budget covers living expenses for service and supportive members, training, and equipment, while external expansion is never an option. In recent years, the country is making ever more contributions to international security by playing an active role in international peacekeeping missions and promoting peace talks on regional hotspot issues.

Third, China’s growing national defense spending is necessary given the surrounding security environment. The major-country struggle heated up around China in 2020, making it imperative to increase our defense spending to maintain the necessary defense capability. Countries like the US, Japan, and India have kept pressuring China on security issues. The North Korean nuclear issue, disputes over the South China Sea, and a stalemated peace process in Afghanistan are still pending. And new regional security hotspots keep emerging. All calls for China to maintain the capability to “stop force by force”.

In general, the pandemic and economic recession have affected global military expenditure, but they are not decisive factors. Although the military spending of countries is linked with their economic growth, the focus should be placed on their security perception. The pandemic has given the international system another jolt, leading to intensified major-country struggle, weak global governance, and political unrest in certain countries. Their effects on the international security situation and military expenditure are worth close attention.

(The author is Secretary-General of the Center of International Security Studies at China Foreign Affairs University.)

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