By Kris Crismundo/Philippine News Agency
BEIJING — Chinese government has released Tuesday a white paper on its national defense policy amid the changing international security environment.
“China’s National Defense in the New Era”, the 10th white paper on national defense and the latest white paper released since 2015, outlines China’s strategy to fortify its national defense and military.
It also trumpets China’s capability of hiking its national defense spending, mentioning that same move was also done by the United States, Russia, and the European Union.
“International strategic competition is on the rise. The US has adjusted its national security and defense strategies, and adopted unilateral policies,” it said adding that it provoked and intensified competition among major countries.
“Russia is strengthening its nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities for strategic containment and striving to safeguard its strategic security space and interests,” the white paper read.
“The European Union is accelerating its security and defense integration to be more independent in its own security,” it added.
The document stressed that the strategy is defensive in nature, with fundamental goals of safeguarding China’s sovereignty and security.
“The distinctive feature of China’s National Defense in the New Era is never seeking hegemony, expansion or spheres of influence,” the white paper read.
The white paper also highlights China’s push for bilateral and multilateral security cooperation.
For this year, defense budget gets the lion’s share in China’s expenditure program amounting to RMB1.19 trillion or over USD173 billion. This is 33 percent of the total spending for 2019.
Its national defense budget also increased by 7.5 percent from 2018’s allocation of RMB1.12 trillion or more than USD163 billion.
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