The Chinese government has increased its defense budget by $ 230 billion amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and the possibility of a third world war. China’s increase in defense budget is a danger sign for India. India has a long border dispute with China and the armies of both the countries have come face to face in Ladakh.
China presented its annual defense budget on Saturday. Which has been increased by 7.1 percent to $230 billion from $209 billion last year. The Chinese government has proposed a defense budget of 1.45 trillion yuan for the fiscal year 2022. This increase is more than three times over India’s defense budget of Rs 5.25 lakh crore (approximately USD 70 billion) for 2022.
Last year, China’s defense spending crossed USD 200 billion for the first time. China increased the defense budget by 6.8 percent to USD 209 billion in 2021. The Chinese prime minister, in his report presented to parliament, said that the PLA should focus on preparing for a comprehensive war. He said the PLA needed to “strengthen a military struggle” to protect the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests.
China has border disputes with almost all its neighboring countries. China is also frightened by these challenges. This is the reason that the government there is constantly emphasizing on the improvement of the army. Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in China in 2012. Since then, Jinping has been continuously increasing the defense budget.
China’s increase in this year’s defense budget comes amid a standoff with India in eastern Ladakh and its escalating political and military tensions with the US. China is the country with the second largest defense budget in the world after the US.