- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A day after US Republican presidential candidate Haley launched her scathing attack on China and called it the strongest and most disciplined enemy that Washington has ever faced, the Asian nation hinted at increasing its defence budget, the second biggest after the US, citing “complex security challenges” ahead of its annual parliament session.
It was set to unveil a new ministerial and official leadership, including a successor to premier Li Keqiang, at the session.
The annual session of the Chinese parliament began on Saturday (4) with the opening meeting of the top advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) while its national legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), will begin its session on Sunday (5).
Over 5,000 deputies and advisors will take part in the two sessions lasting for over a week during which China will formally unveil its new ministerial and top official leadership including a new premier to succeed Li, who will be retiring.
Li is widely expected to be succeeded by president Xi Jinping’s loyalist Li Qiang. Except for Xi, 69, all top officials will be replaced as part of the practice of changing the leadership team every 10 years. Xi and a new set of officials — mostly stated to be his loyalists — were elected to various key posts of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) at its once-in-a-five-year Congress in Beijing last October.
Ahead of the NPC session, its spokesman Wang Chao signalled an increase in its defence budget, which last year totalled $230 billion (£191.1 billion) after a 7.1 per cent rise, the second largest after the US defence spending of $777.1 billion (£645.7 billion).
Wang, while not disclosing the amount, which he said will be formally revealed at the NPC on Sunday, defended China’s steady increases in annual defence budgets, saying China’s defence spending as a share of the GDP was lower than the world average.
China has been ramping up its defence expenditure as it vied with the US for global influence.
Its defence budget last year was more than three times that of India’s defence spending of about $70 billion (£58.1 billion). Wang said the increase in the defence budget is needed to meet the “complex security challenges for China to fulfil its responsibilities as a major country.”
China’s military modernisation will not be a threat to any country but a positive force safeguarding regional stability and world peace, he said.
Haley on Friday (3) lashed out at the ruling Democratic Party as a ‘socialist’ outfit and called “Communist China” as the strongest and most disciplined enemy that her country has ever faced.
Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference — the top annual event of the GOP and its support base — Haley, who is an Indian-American, emphasised on Washington’s foreign policy wherein she asserted that it should not give aid to nations that hate it.
Mentioning the recent spy balloon incident, the former US ambassador to the United Nations said it was a “national embarrassment”.
“Never in my life did I think Americans would look at the sky and see a Chinese spy balloon looking back at us. It was a national embarrassment,” the 51-year-old said.
“Make no mistake, Communist China is the strongest and most disciplined enemy we have ever faced. We need to hold China accountable. Let us start with Covid. And before we even talk about the cartels, we need to confront the fact that China is the one sending the fentanyl across our border,” Haley was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.
Haley announced her presidential run on February 14 and would be challenging her former boss Donald Trump, the former US president, to clinch the nomination.
Taking a dig at the Joe Biden administration, she said, “I cannot believe what Joe Biden is letting China get away with. Chinese companies now own more than 380,000 acres of American soil, some of it right next to our military bases. What are we doing? We should never let an enemy buy land in our country. And we need to tell every university — you can either take Chinese money or American money, but you will no longer get both.”
She said China thinks the American era has passed and so do all the enemies of the US, but they are wrong.
“America is not past our prime. It is just that our politicians are past theirs,” she was quoted by PTI as saying.
(With PTI inputs)
