A cause for concern

This is apparent from the country’s defence budget for 2012. China’s defence spending for this year totals US$106 billion, up 11.2 per cent over the previous year and the second-largest figure after that of the US.

China has maintained double-digit growth in defence 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 defence budget has increased fourfold to reach nearly double the size of Japan’s.

Japan and China’s other neighbours 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 defence budget does not include costs for space exploration, which is inextricably linked with military development. So its total defence 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 defence spending is mainly intended to develop or procure anti-ship ballistic missiles targeted at US aircraft carriers, cruise missiles and next-generation fighter jets. China is believed to be bolstering its capabilities to deny access by the US 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 in order to vie with the US, 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 Defence Ministry’s National Institute for Defence Studies warned that as China strengthens its military muscle, Beijing would take a hardline stance in the East China Sea similar to that in the South China Sea.

Signs 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-US alliance to boost its deterrent power. Japan’s defence 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 defence spending must be halted as soon as possible.