Military spending justified to safeguard peace and security

It has become the norm each year during the two sessions of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body, for some Western media outlets to scrutinize China's proposed military spending and claim it poses a threat to China's neighbors and beyond. This is both confounding and malignant. For if they discarded their "China threat" mentality and looked upon China's defense spending growth with objectivity, they would quickly arrive at the conclusion that China's expenditure increase is reasonable given its need to modernize its military to meet the changing circumstances.

First of all, facing an extremely complicated security landscape and drastic increase in traditional and nontraditional security threats, China has to raise defense spending accordingly so as to minimize security risks. For example, there is the risk of military conflicts due to territorial and maritime disputes with its neighbors, and its national sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened by separatism and terrorism. Facing these severe challenges, China urgently needs to build a strong, capable and modernized army to respond to risks and threats and ensure national security and safeguard its territorial integrity.

Second, as a responsible major country, China is increasingly shouldering tasks to uphold world peace and stability. In recent years, China has proactively taken part in global security governance and spared no effort in international peace-keeping, humanitarian aid programs, global anti-terrorism cooperation and so on. For instance, China has dispatched 28 batches of convoy fleets to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters to escort more than 6,400 vessels of which half are owned by other countries. By reasonably increasing its military spending, China is also guaranteeing that it can comfortably take on more responsibilities and more vigorously help promote world peace and stability.