Xi Jinping ratifies new guidelines to strengthen China's military procurement

A month after the US revealed its Indo-Pacific strategy and as Russia's war on Ukraine continues, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ratified new guidelines to regulate and strengthen its military procurement process.

This is nothing new as China has already increased its defence budget for 2022 on the opening day of its fifth annual session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC).

Under the title, 'Interim provisions on the supervision and administration of military equipment procurement contracts' the guidelines comprising 35 articles in six chapters came into force on March 20 to strengthen the efficacy of China's acquisition procedure.

The new rules will ensure a growth in the "quality and efficiency" of the Military Procurement process in China. There will be a new content and supervision arrangement for the management of the procurement of equipment, reported the Hong Kong Post citing the Chinese News Agency Xinhua.

Chinese defence budget continues to rebound however in comparison to other democracies; China has always been private about how it apportions its military spending. By boosting the defence budget, China is essentially trying to gain its military influence on a global level.

By 2050, China is aiming to be the strongest and a power that cannot be defeated. As the defence budget of China continues to increase, there's a growing risk of conflict with a possibility of China emerging more emboldened and striving to unilaterally reshape the global state of affairs by dint of threats and violence, as per the HK Post.

China with the help of its military might has also been engaging in heavy face-offs with the US in the disputed South China Sea. Taiwan is yet another bone of contention as China vows to integrate the region into its mainland.

Usually these annual announcements of Chinese military spending grab headlines, but in 2022 the 7.1 per cent rise in Beijing's defence expenditure is overshadowed by the war in Europe.In monetary terms, China's 2022 defence spending is CNY1.45045 trillion (USD229.39 billion). Indeed, the budget revealed on 5 March confirms a continuing rebound in expenditure. Last year, China increased spending by 6.8 per cent to CNY1.355 trillion (USD209.4 billion).

The overall increase of approximately USD20 billion this year is actually the largest ever (the second largest was USD13.4 billion in 2021, and the largest was USD13.6 billion in 2014).Two years ago, China approved just a 6.6 per cent increase in defence spending, which represented a dip due to the onset of COVID-19. In preceding years, the budget had risen 7.5 per cent (2019) and 8.1 per cent (2018) annually.

( With inputs from ANI )

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