The Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress announced in March that China's 2009 defense budget is 480.686 billion yuan ($70.7 billion), increasing by 62.482 billion yuan ($9.2 billion), or 14.9 percent, over the previous year. On March 16, Beijing-based Guangming Daily published an interview with Quan Linyuan, a professor at the University of National Defense of the People's Liberation Army and Chen Xiaojing, a doctoral candidate there, who both shared their perspectives on the increase of China's military expenditures.

HI-TECH NAVY: China's new anti-ship missiles shown at the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2008

Question: China's 2008 defense expenditure was $60.9 billion, representing 6.7 percent of China's total fiscal expenditure. Although China's 2009 defense expenditure has grown in absolute terms, its share of the central budget dropped to 6.3 percent. What are your interpretations on these changes of figures?

Quan Linyuan: As a developing country, China has a large population, relatively backward productivity and imbalanced development between different regions. Based on these basic national conditions, China sticks to its fundamental policy of strictly controlling its defense input and never entering into an arms race.

China's national defense expenditure has been confined to meeting its needs to safeguard its national security and development and to fulfill its international duties. China has a land border of over 20,000 km and a marine border of over 30,000 km. China is also a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has increasingly participated in UN peacekeeping missions, international antiterror activities, rescue missions, regional security cooperative missions and joint military drills. China has yet to reform the organization and structure of its armed forces, its defense-related science and technology industries. Both the country's military modernization level and military capacity are not compatible with its missions and duties, which has become a major problem plaguing China's national defense and armed forces. Moderately increasing China's defense expenditure is a viable way to solve this problem.

Chen Xiaojing: China has raised its defense budget against the backdrop of many countries enhancing their military expenditures while China's defense expenditure is still relatively low in per-capita terms in the world. Although China's defense budget in 2009 records an annual increase of 14.9 percent, its absolute scale and per-capita level are very limited (see chart).

The increased 2009 defense budget will mainly be used for raising service people's living standards, salaries, benefits and subsidies so that their quality of life will improve along with people in other sectors of society.

For a long time after China's launch of its reform and opening-up policies in the late 1970s, the country's defense expenditure stayed at a rather low level. How did that impact China's national defense and armed forces development?

Quan: From 1978 to 1987, the average annual growth in China's defense expenditure was 3.5 percent. During the same period, China's gross domestic product (GDP) and fiscal expenditure grew every year by 14.1 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.

Between 1988 and 1997, the national defense expenditure grew by an average annual rate of 14.5 percent while GDP grew by 20.7 percent and total fiscal expenditure grew by 15.1 percent. Since the Chinese economy during this period suffered from high inflation rates, the actual defense expenditure increases were far below the nominal growth rates.

Chen: This "freezing period" of expenses in national defense has caused many problems. Service people were underpaid, weapons and equipment failed to be upgraded and military drills faced acute budget shortages. China started to raise its military expenditure in 1998 mainly to solve these problems caused by the long-time expenditure insufficiency.

What is your comment on the transparency of China's military expenditure?

Quan: In the last decade, China has been publishing its detailed national defense policies and budget in white papers besides releasing its defense expenditure every year. In 1995, the Chinese Government issued a white paper on arms control and disarmament. China issued six national defense white papers in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009. In retrospect, these white papers never avoided "sensitive issues," such as the national defense expenditure and have been giving increasingly detailed elaboration on these issues. All white papers have clearly explained the usage of increased defense budgets.

Chen: China's national defense expenditure is appropriated from the central budget, and its defense budget, which is part of the central budget, has to be submitted to the National People's Congress for approval. The Chinese Government officially joined the UN Military Budget Transparency Mechanism in 2007, according to which it reports its military expenditures to the UN every year. However, it is noteworthy that due to their differences in fiscal systems and mechanisms, different countries and international organizations have slightly different calculation standards and methods for defense expenditure. Therefore, countries using their own standards as the rule to measure those of other countries, who then accuse them of a large amount of "hidden military expenditure," have ulterior motives.

How do you view national differences in ideologies, systems and standards reflected in defense expenditure?

Quan: To understand national differences in systems and defense expenditure standards are less important than a country's strategic goals and its cultural traditions in which its defense policies are rooted. As the only uninterrupted civilization among all ancient societies, the Chinese civilization holds dear the values of love for peace and harmoniousness. Chinese people's philosophy on "harmoniousness" has left a deep mark on human history. Zheng He, who headed the Chinese fleets' seven expeditions around the Indian Ocean 600 years ago, extended friendship and good will for communication to countries and regions he visited, rather than military forces and looting. During the century between 1840 and 1949, China was invaded by many countries while the resultant wars killed countless Chinese and destroyed a great amount of wealth. Based on its deep reflection on its own development path and sincere wishes for lasting peace, China has always regarded peaceful development as a fundamental national policy, safeguarding peace as the essential goal for its national defense and adherence to a defensive national defense policy as a basic principle.

Chen: Since China adopted reform and opening-up policies, the country's national strength has surged dramatically, allowing other countries to share with us through trade and cultural exchanges the fruits of our development. China's social and economic development and growing national defense forces will not pose any threat to any country or region, rather these will contribute to the world's peace and development. China has clearly put forward a peaceful development path. Domestically, China will focus on its economic development. In terms of foreign policies, China is committed to safeguarding world peace and promoting mutual development toward a prosperous and harmonious world. This is China's sincere and solemn commitment to the world. A country's national defense expenditure is the economic reflection of its national defense policies. China's limited spending on national defense to safeguard itself further proves its commitments to peaceful development.