Friday, May 20, 2022
  • About us
    • Write for us
    • Disclaimer
    • Terms of use
    • Privacy Policy
  • RSS Feeds
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
DefenceTalk
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
DefenceTalk
No Result
View All Result

China must increase ability to win ‘local wars,’ PM says

by Agence France-Presse
March 5, 2012
in Defense Geopolitics News
2 min read
0
Mongolia to send troops to Afghanistan
14
VIEWS

China must enhance the ability of its military to win “local wars”, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday, as Beijing grows increasingly assertive about its territorial claims in Asia.

Beijing lays claim to large swathes of the South China Sea which are also claimed by its smaller neighbours, and must also secure supply routes and new sources of raw materials to fuel its booming economy.

Wen’s made his comments at the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, a day after the government announced military spending would top $100 billion in 2012 — an 11.2 percent increase on last year.

“We will enhance the armed forces’ capacity to accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most important of which is to win local wars under information age conditions,” Wen said in his “state of the nation” speech.

China’s territorial disputes with countries including Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam have grown rockier in recent years and its neighbours have accused it of behaving aggressively.

The Asian giant already has the world’s largest armed forces and its defence budget has seen double-digit increases every year for much of the last decade, rattling the United States, which is forging ahead with plans to expand its own military power in Asia.

Analysts say actual defence spending is probably double the published figure, with funding for modernising the country’s military not included in the budget.

China has made advances in satellite technology and cyber warfare in recent years and invested in advanced weaponry including its first aircraft carrier, a 300-metre-long (990-foot) former Soviet naval vessel that had its first sea trial in August.

But it remains technologically far behind the United States. Wen said Beijing aimed to “enhance our capacity for making innovations in defence-related science and technology and in weapons and equipment development”.

“We will vigorously carry out military training under information-age conditions,” he told the 3,000 delegates gathered in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

China began revamping its People’s Liberation Army — the former ragtag peasant force formed in 1927 by the Communist Party — in earnest after a difficult 1979 incursion into Vietnam, when the neighbours vied for influence over Southeast Asia.

Besides conventional weaponry upgrades, the push also led to China’s fast-growing space programme and the test of a satellite-destroying weapon in 2007.

China lays claim to essentially all of the South China Sea, where its professed ownership of the Spratly archipelago overlaps with claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.

Beijing and Tokyo also have a long-standing dispute over an uninhabited but strategically coveted island chain known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, which lies between Japan and Taiwan in the East China Sea.

Wen also said China will “modernise the armed police force” — responsible for domestic security — amid growing social unrest in Tibetan-inhabited regions and in Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighurs.

Tags: chinataiwanwarsWorld Military
Previous Post

Syria turns its guns on new rebel city

Next Post

Fifth generation fighters crucial to air superiority

Related Posts

Turkey seeks alternatives to Russian energy after warplane crisis

Erdogan urges NATO allies to ‘respect’ concerns over Finland, Sweden

May 19, 2022

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO, urged the alliance's members...

Somali forces capture rebel stronghold

Biden reestablishes US troop presence inside Somalia

May 17, 2022

President Joe Biden has ordered the reestablishment of a US troop presence in Somalia to help local authorities combat the...

Next Post
Lockheed Martin F-35A Performs First Night Flight

Fifth generation fighters crucial to air superiority

Latest Defense News

Turkey seeks alternatives to Russian energy after warplane crisis

Erdogan urges NATO allies to ‘respect’ concerns over Finland, Sweden

May 19, 2022
North Korea

North Korea ‘ready for nuclear test’ with Biden due in Seoul

May 19, 2022
German Weapons Exports Decline Significantly

Prague to get German tanks in exchange for Ukraine aid

May 19, 2022
Somali forces capture rebel stronghold

Biden reestablishes US troop presence inside Somalia

May 17, 2022
Chile redeploys army to restive southern region

Chile redeploys army to restive southern region

May 17, 2022
Erdogan threatens to block NATO’s Baltic defence plan

Turkey ‘will not say yes’ to NATO membership for Sweden, Finland: Erdogan

May 17, 2022

Defense Forum Discussions

  • Middle East Defence & Security
  • China - Geostrategic & Geopolitical.
  • Russia and the West
  • Australian Army Discussions and Updates
  • Russian Air Force News & Discussion
  • Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0
  • Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates
  • Russian Navy Discussions and Updates
  • The Russian-Ukrainian War Thread
  • General Aviation Thread
DefenceTalk

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com

Navigate Site

  • Defence Forum
  • Military Photos
  • RSS Feeds
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com