Chinese President Xi Jinping has signed an order to promulgate a set of rules on regulating military equipment procurement contracts to advance the efficiency of the country’s acquisition process.
The regulations stipulate the basic tasks, contents and management system for the supervision and management of equipment procurement contracts under new circumstances, Xinhua news agency reported.
The regulations, comprising 35 articles in six chapters, will take effect on March 20.
This announcement comes less than a month after China announced its defence budget for 2022 on the opening day of its fifth annual session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC).
Usually these annual announcements of Chinese military spending grab headlines, but in 2022 the 7.1 per cent rise in Beijing’s defence expenditure is overshadowed by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In monetary terms, China’s 2022 defence spending is USD229.39 billion. Indeed, the budget revealed on March 5 confirms a continuing rebound in expenditure. Last year, China increased spending by 6.8 per cent to USD209.4 billion.
The overall increase of approximately USD20 billion this year is actually the largest ever. The pretty consistent year-to-year gains for defence expenditure also underscore that the PLA is at heart a political entity.
Threat perceptions may change over time, but China continues to prioritize spending on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) no matter what reason it ascribes to the growth.
Anonymous “analysts” quoted by China’s parochial Global Times said the budget was “steady and reasonable at a time when China needs to modernize its military capabilities to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity amid severe external threats and an unstable security environment”. (ANI)
