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China extends military splurge with 10.1pc budget increase

– Lessons from history –
Beijing frequently defends the expansion of its military by pointing to the “century of humiliation” the country endured during its partial occupation by foreign powers, including Japan, in the 19th and 20th centuries.

NPC spokeswoman Fu Ying told reporters Wednesday, ahead of the budget’s official release, that China will never forget its lesson from history: “Those who fall behind will get bullied.”

But questions have been raised over the effectiveness of China’s fighting forces, which have been among the targets of a wide-ranging corruption crackdown under President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the ruling party and chairman of its Central Military Commission (CMC).

Around a dozen generals have been ensnared, and Li said Beijing would “uphold the fundamental principle of the Party’s absolute leadership over the armed forces”.

Former CMC vice-chairman Xu Caihou confessed to bribery last year and was dismissed from the military with his rank revoked last year, military prosecutors said.

Top officer Gu Junshan was formally charged with corruption after he was exposed as owning dozens of homes, state media reported. Officials seized “a gold boat, a gold wash basin and a gold statue of Mao Zedong” along with “crates of expensive liquor” from one of Gu’s residences, reports said at the time.

China has resolutely asserted its territorial claims since Xi came to power two years ago, but he has previously spoken of Beijing being incapable of “hegemony or militarism”, saying “it is not in the genes of the Chinese”.

The finance ministry report containing the budget figures said China would “strive for the goal of building powerful armed forces” to “safeguard China’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and so that they ensure its peaceful development”.

Bitzinger said the term “peaceful development” had become more widely used by Beijing, as it was less “aggressive” than the previous term often used by Chinese officials, “peaceful rise”.

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“But this is a military, and militaries do not really have anything to do with peace, they have everything to do with war,” he added.

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