China is expected to increase spending on its defense budget in 2022.
The Global Times, a tabloid newspaper owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party, said, “Ahead of China’s announcement of its defense budget for 2022, analysts and observers predict that the country will likely continue to steadily increase its military expenditure, at a rate possibly slightly faster than last year.”
“China enjoys a positive economic development but faces security threats,” the global times continued, “The two factors provide a foundation and need for China to further develop its national defense capabilities to safeguard national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and rightful interest.”
Military experts believe that the Chinese defense budget could grow by as much as 7 percent.
Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, said, “China will likely continue to expand its military expenditure this year, as the defense spending should be closely related to the development of the national economy.”
China has made single-digit increases to its annual defense budget every year since 2016. In 2021, China’s GDP expanded by 8.1 percent marking the fastest growth in the Chinese economy in almost a decade.
“While the economy has been affected by COVID-19, China did well with epidemic prevention and control, and is enjoying a relative healthy economy,” Fu added, “So, it is likely that China will spend more on national defense.”
Many in the West expect China to invade the island nation of Taiwan in the near future. In fact, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that it is a matter of “when” and not “if” China makes a move on Taiwan.
Chinese leaders have even said that if the United States comes to the aid of Taiwan and affirms the nation’s independence it could lead to military conflict between America and China.
In a recent interview with NPR, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, said, ‘If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict.”
Xi Jinping recently reached out to his counterpart in North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, and called for the two communist countries to come to a “common understanding” as they work to build supportive and friendly relations under “a new situation.”
The increasingly likelihood of Chinese aggression in Asia has prompted Japan to break with its post-WWII pacifistic tendencies and reconsider its approach to national defense.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested that Japan house nuclear weapons on behalf of the United States as a preemptive defensive measure against China.
