Correspondent Eva Rammeloo:
“Should it ever come to a Chinese-American clash over Taiwan, the new aircraft carrier will play a major role in this. Government newspaper Global Times therefore subtly notes that Fujian is the name of the province ‘which is located directly opposite the island of Taiwan’.
China seems to spend less on its military than the United States. The budget last year was $193.3 billion, compared to $738 billion for the US armed forces. However, Beijing does not count how much it spends on arms imports, subsidies to the defense industry and the Chinese coast guard. In addition, shipbuilding is in the hands of the state, which obscures the costs for the Fujian, for example.
China also believes that it has every reason to expand its military capacity, precisely because the United States had already made much more progress. For that reason, Beijing does not participate in agreements to reduce nuclear warheads or medium-range missiles.”
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