Double Digit Increase of Military Expenditure Has Continued for 20 years. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily published an article on March 5, 2008 on China’s newly released defense budget. It states that China’s military expenditure has been on the rise with a double digital increase for 20 years in a row. After the 1989 Tiananmen massacre when military forces were used to suppress the Beijing democracy movement, defense expenditure started to take off and hit 355.39 billion yuan last year, about 14 times what it was in 1989.
Apple Daily comments that the 2008 defense budget of 417.7 billion yuan is no surprise in light of last week’s lengthy article in the PLA Daily calling for a significant increase in the defense budget.
Source: Apply Daily, March 5, 2008 reprinted by New Century News. http://www.newcenturynews.com/Article/china/200803/20080305145831.html