On the eve of China's annual parliamentary session — the National People's Congress (NPC) — on March 5-16, Beijing announced plans to increase its military spending for 2007 by 17.8% to 350 billion yuan (US$45 billion), provoking immediate concern from Washington.
Apart from being by far the world's biggest military spender — responsible for nearly half of global spending — Washington accounted for 80% of the increase in military expenditure in 2005, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
In comparison, according to SIPRI, distantly trailing behind Washington are Britain, France, Japan and China, each accounting for 4-5% of global military spending in 2005.
Commenting on Beijing's new military budget, US national security spokesperson Gordon Johndroe told AFP on March 5, "This kind of spending not only concerns us but raises concerns among China's neighbors. This is inconsistent with China's policy of peaceful development."
Washington has for years accused China of being a threat to its neighbours, prompting Malaysia's then prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad to respond in September 2003 that "Asian countries need not fear China's ever-growing military and economic powers, because China has no tradition of external territorial aggrandizement".
Johndroe further accused Beijing of not being "transparent" enough in its military budget. Quoting estimates such as those from the Central Intelligence Agency and US Department of Defense, the Western corporate media has regularly alleged that China's real military budget is higher than its reported figure.
Washington hasn't come clean with its real military expenditure either. The official 2006 US defence budget was just over $440 billion, yet this excludes a range of additional expenditure such as supplemental funds allocated by the US Congress during the year for its wars and occupations. Quoting Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation tabulations, Globalissues.org points out that the US Congress has already approved more than $500 billion in supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to $93.4 billion more for 2007.
Responding to Washington's criticism, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson pointed out on March 4 that China's 2005 military budget of $30.6 billion amounted to 6.2% of the US's budget, 53% of Britain's, 71% of France's and 68% of Japan's. The spokesperson added that China's 2005 military spending amounted to 1.35% of its GDP, whereas the US's spending in the same year was equivalent to more than 4% of the US GDP.
Washington's long-held dominance in military technology remains unrivalled. A 2003 Council on Foreign Relations report concluded that while China is pursuing a deliberate course of military modernisation, its military technology is "at least two decades behind the US".
A September 8, 2003 Power and Interest News Report further observed, "such an unbelievably high rate of spending by the United States will guarantee that China will have the utmost difficulty competing for raw military power ... China also lacks the industrial edge to develop new technologies on its own, which explains why it has been purchasing its most modern military equipment from Russia".