China Raises Defense Budget for 29th Straight Year Amid Global Arms Race

China has raised its defense budget for the 29th consecutive year, signaling a sustained commitment to bolstering its military amid a global arms race, a new report says.

Chinese defense spending climbed by 5.4 percent year on year in local currency terms to 1.55 trillion yuan in 2023 ($219.5 billion), according to the Military Balance 2024 report by London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) as reported by the Nikkei Asia Review on Wednesday.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has aimed to transform the People’s Liberation Army into a world-class military as Beijing bolsters its military posture in the Indo-Pacific region.

This approach to boosting the defense budget suggests a transformation in Beijing’s perception of potential conflicts, moving away from the expectation of swift victories to preparing for a more enduring and attritional warfare.

Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for Chinese security and defense policy at the IISS, told Nikkei that China is slowly making changes to integrate the People’s Liberation Army and civilian mobilization for a “protracted” war in the Indo-Pacific region.

“China is learning from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and starting to prepare for a ‘protracted’ war in the Indo-Pacific region by making legal changes that will help integrate military and civilian mobilization,” Meia Nouwens told Nikkei.

Nouwens also noted recent moves to facilitate the return of reservists and veterans to their units and to grant the military access to civilian infrastructure and fuel stocks.

Robert Wall, the editor of the report, pointed out that China is now “driving the designs” of military modernization efforts, a departure from previous years where Russia was seen as the primary influencer.

“China has demonstrated increased power-projection capacity, driving increased cooperation among Western and Asian militaries as a counterbalance,” said the Military Balance 2024 report, adding that “the current military-security situation heralds what is likely to be a more dangerous decade.”

Newsweek contacted China’s Embassy in Washington, D.C, for comment.

The increase in China’s defense budget has spurred neighboring countries to boost their own military spending, with notable increases in Taiwan and Japan.

Taiwan’s spending rose 24.2 percent in 2023 from the previous year, while Japan began a planned multiyear growth with a 10.5 percent increase in 2023, according to Nikkei.

The report also noted that global defence spending grew by 9 percent to reach a record $2.2 trillion, “driven, in part by NATO member states boosting budgets in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

Non-U.S. NATO members spend 32 percent more on defense since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea.