New | Big defence spender US has no right to criticise China military budget, says admiral
A top military official and member of China’s top consultative body says the United States has no right to criticise China’s defence spending as America’s own budget dwarfs that of the world’s No 2 economy.
Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told the Southern Metropolis Daily that the US spends six times more than China on defence.
China’s defence budget last year was 720 billion yuan (HK$911 billion), second only to the US, and grew at an average rate of 10 per cent per year over the past three years.
The official, who is sitting at the ongoing CPPCC meetings in Beijing, was apparently reacting to criticisms against the increasing military might of China, which is seen as a growing threat to US dominance and to Asian countries’ territorial claims in the region.
[America's] total GDP is twice ours, so its military spending is more than six times ours What qualifications does it have to criticise China’s military spending for being too high?
Yin had previously reacted to reports that China would outspend the US by 2030, saying China was following the path of peaceful development.
He said in the Daily report that China’s military spending had declined over the past 25 years and only started recovering after the year 2000.