CHINA'S INCREASED MILITARY BUDGET THREATENS REGIONAL PEACE: OFFICIAL
ROC Central News Agency
2007-03-06 17:17:09
Taipei, March 6 (CNA) China's increasing military spending poses a great threat to regional peace and stability, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Wang Chien-yeh said Tuesday.
Wang made the remarks after China's National People's Congress spokesman Jiang Enzhu announced recently that Beijing's defense budget for 2007 will increase by 17.8 percent over the year-earlier level.
The US$45 billion increase in China's annual military budget is a historic high, triggering concerns in the international community, Wang said during a routine press briefing.
The reason why the international community has focused on China's military spending is mainly due to the long-term lack of transparency in its military buildup, Wang said.
He further said that although Beijing has repeatedly hailed China's modernization as a "peaceful rise, " the large increase in its defense spending and the lack of transparency go against Beijing's claims of aiming at promoting a "peaceful society, " a "peaceful world" and "peaceful development."
In addition to delivering on its promises, China should seek to make its military modernization more transparent and give the international community a reasonable explanation for the substantial hike in its 2007 defense budget, Wang continued.
Wang also cited a recent report issued by Amnesty International, an organization working to protect human rights worldwide, as saying that China has continued to export weapons to several civil war-ridden countries, such as Sudan, Myanmar and Nepal, and that these weapons are used to oppress citizens in those countries.
(By Luis Huang)
enditem/Li
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