Threats against Taiwan
China decides to increase its military budget again
March 11, 2024, 9:26 a.m
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This year’s People’s Congress ends in China. Delegates in Beijing vote for a significant increase in defense spending. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had previously threatened Taiwan and its allies with harsh words.
China’s People’s Congress approved a significant increase in the military budget at the end of this year’s session. As expected, around 2,900 delegates in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing approved the budget, which calls for a 7.2 percent increase in defense spending this year to 1.67 trillion yuan (around 214 billion euros).
China’s military spending had already increased by the same amount in the previous year. The renewed sharp increase comes against the backdrop of the communist leadership’s threats against democratic Taiwan and China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South and East China Seas.
On the sidelines of this year’s annual meeting of the People’s Congress, Foreign Minister Wang Yi particularly warned against interference in the so-called Taiwan question. “Whoever supports Taiwan’s independence will burn themselves and swallow the bitter pill for their actions,” Wang said. China will never allow Taiwan to secede from the mainland. Wang described the recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Taiwan in mid-January as “local elections in a part of China.”
Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, which Beijing sees as separatist, won the January election. The inauguration is scheduled for May 20th. Lai replaces President Tsai Ing-wen, who served two terms and is also a member of the Progressive Party. Beijing counts Taiwan as Chinese territory, even though a democratically elected government has been in power there for decades and the Communist Party in Beijing has never ruled the island. China wants to unite the island with the mainland using military means if necessary.