China is continuing to beef up its military. This is apparent from the country’s defense budget for 2012, which was made public at the opening session of the People’s National Congress on Monday.

The country’s defense spending for this year totals about 670 billion yuan (about 8.7 trillion yen), up 11.2 percent over the previous year and the second-largest figure after that of the United States.

China has maintained double-digit growth in defense spending since 1989, with the exception of 2010 when its economy was affected by the global recession. During the decade President Hu Jintao’s administration has been in power, China’s defense budget has increased fourfold to reach a level nearly double the size of Japan’s.

Japan and China’s other neighbors are increasingly worried about Beijing’s military buildup. Why is China continuing to expand its military budget? Its explanations are insufficient.

“The budget includes research and purchase costs for all military equipment, including new types of weapons,” a spokesman for China’s parliament said without going into details.

The new defense budget does not include costs for space exploration, which is inextricably linked with military development. So its total defense spending is estimated to be almost double the figure disclosed.

As a major power, China must exercise its responsibility by making its military spending and equipment purchase plans more transparent.

The increase in China’s defense spending is mainly intended to develop or procure antiship ballistic missiles targeted at U.S. aircraft carriers, cruise missiles and next-generation fighter jets. China is believed to be bolstering its capabilities to deny access by the U.S. military to waters around China in times of an emergency in the Taiwan Strait.

In December last year, Hu directed high-ranking naval officers to prepare for an expansion of their “military struggle,” indicating China’s intention to build a strong naval force from the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean to vie with the United States, which places importance on the Asian region.

China’s naval strategy leaves Japan with no alternative but to maintain its vigilance.

In a report released last month, the Defense Ministry’s National Institute for Defense Studies warned that as China strengthens its military muscle, Beijing would take a hard-line stance in the East China Sea similar to that in the South China Sea.

Sign of this have already occurred.

A Chinese patrol boat confronted a Japan Coast Guard survey ship last month ― the third time in recent months ― to demand that it stop conducting marine research in Japan’s exclusive economic zone around Okinawa Prefecture.

Japan must continue to lodge protests over these illegitimate demands.

It is also essential to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance to boost its deterrent power.

Japan’s defense spending has declined for 10 consecutive years. Unless this is rectified, the upgrading of military equipment and the operational capabilities of Self-Defense Forces troops will be severely affected. The decrease in defense spending must be halted as soon as possible.

(The Yomiuri Shimbun)

(Asia News Network)