By WENDELL MINNICK
TAIPEI — One day after the US released its proposed defense budget for the coming year, China did the same, boosting defense spending by more than 12 percent. But analysts caution that the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
According to the Ministry of Finance, national defense spending is 808.23 billion yuan (US $131 billion), up 12.2 percent from the previous year. Last year, it was 730 billion yuan (US $119 billion), a 10.7 percent increase from the year before.
Despite the increases, actual spending was less that what China had earlier announced it would spend.
“According to my records, 2013 is the second year in a row in which China’s actual defense spending wound up being significantly less than was announced at the beginning of the year,” said Roger Cliff, senior fellow with the Asia Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.
“The announced budget in March 2013 was ... an increase of 10.7 percent over 2012. Actual expenditure in 2013 was ... an increase of only 7.6 percent over 2012.”
The announced increases also never account for inflation, Cliff said. “Inflation in 2013 was expected to be 3.2 percent, official inflation figures for 2013 haven’t been released yet, as far as I know, so the increase in defense spending from 2012 to 2013 was only 4.3 percent in real terms.
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