China steps up defence budget to ‘prepare for armed confrontation’
Beijing has increased its defence expenditure by 6.6% for the coming year, even while many other nations are slashing budgets to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that China unleashed on the world.
Worryingly, Chairman Xi Jinping said the upcoming budget of CNY1.27 trillion ($179 billion) was necessary ‘to step up preparations for armed combat’.
This amount is some CNY78 billion more than last year’s CNY1.19 trillion defence budget. To put this in perspective, the actual increment of this year’s increase is almost identical to the complete defence budget of Taiwan for 2020.
Xi also praised the military for effectively dealing
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