CCTV News:On July 24th, the State Council held a press conference on the White Paper "China’s National Defense in the New Era". In response to a reporter’s question, Senior Colonel Wang Taiguo, deputy director of the Finance Bureau of the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission, said that China’s defense expenditure will be coordinated with the country’s economic development level and will continue to maintain moderate and steady growth.
In the new era, China’s army has resolutely fulfilled the mission entrusted by the Party and the people according to the strategic needs of national security and development, and provided strategic support for consolidating the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s leadership and socialist system, defending national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, safeguarding national overseas interests and promoting world peace and development. However, China is the only big country in the world that has not yet achieved complete reunification, and it is one of the countries with the most complicated security situation around the world. China’s army is facing severe challenges in safeguarding national sovereignty, territorial integrity and maritime rights and interests.
At present, global problems and challenges continue to increase. With the development of the armed forces of China and China, the international community’s expectations for China’s military to provide international public safety products are increasing. China’s army has actively fulfilled its international responsibilities and participated extensively in peacekeeping, escort and disaster relief, and will invest more and more in this field in the future. At the same time, China’s army is in the stage of information transformation, and it still has a long way to go to conform to the development trend of the new military revolution in the world and promote military reform with China characteristics.
Because of this, there is still a big gap between China’s national defense expenditure and the demand for safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and the demand for fulfilling the international responsibilities and obligations of big countries, and the demand for its own construction and development.
Among the countries with the highest defense expenditure in the world in 2017, China’s defense expenditure is at a low level in terms of the proportion of GDP and national fiscal expenditure, as well as the per capita national and military figures.
China has become the second largest economy in the world. The scale of national defense expenditure ranks second in the world, which is determined by China’s national defense demand, economic volume and defensive national defense policy. In terms of total expenditure, China’s defense expenditure in 2017 was less than a quarter of that of the United States.
In terms of the proportion of defense expenditure in GDP, from 2012 to 2017, the average proportion of defense expenditure in GDP in China was about 1.3%, that in the United States was about 3.5%, that in Russia was about 4.4%, that in India was about 2.5%, that in Britain was about 2.0%, that in France was about 2.3%, that in Japan was about 1.0% and that in Germany was about 1.2%. The average proportion of China’s defense expenditure in GDP ranks sixth among the countries with the highest defense expenditure in the world and the lowest among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
In terms of the proportion of defense expenditure in fiscal expenditure, from 2012 to 2017, the average proportion of defense expenditure in fiscal expenditure in China was about 5.3%, that in the United States was about 9.8%, that in Russia was about 12.4%, that in India was about 9.1%, that in Britain was about 4.8%, that in France was about 4.0%, that in Japan was about 2.5% and that in Germany was about 2.8%. China’s defense expenditure ranks fourth in the average proportion of fiscal expenditure.
From the level of per capita defense expenditure, in 2017, the per capita defense expenditure of China citizens was 750 yuan RMB, which was about 5% of that of the United States, 25% of that of Russia, 231% of that of India, 13% of that of Britain, 16% of that of France, 29% of that of Japan and 20% of that of Germany. China’s per capita defense expenditure is 521,600 yuan, which is about 15% of that of the United States, 119% of Russia, 166% of India, 27% of Britain, 38% of France, 35% of Japan and 30% of Germany. China ranks seventh in national defense expenditure per capita and sixth in military defense expenditure per capita.
Since the reform and opening-up, China’s national defense expenditure has experienced a development process from maintenance investment to moderate growth, and generally maintained a moderate and coordinated growth in step with the national economic and financial expenditure. The proportion of defense expenditure in gross domestic product (GDP) dropped from the highest 5.43% in 1979 to 1.26% in 2017, and remained within 2% for nearly 30 years. In 1979, defense expenditure accounted for 17.37% of the national fiscal expenditure, and in 2017 it was 5.14%, a decrease of more than 12 percentage points, and the overall downward trend was obvious.