China increases defense budget amid tensions with India and US, more than three times than India

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China's defense budget has crossed $ 200 billion for the first time. China on Friday increased its defense budget by 6.8 percent to $ 209 billion for the year 2021. This figure is more than three times India's defense budget.

Chinese Prime Minister Li Qing announced this budget on the first day of the session of the National People's Congress of China's Parliament. This is the sixth consecutive year that China's defense budget has seen a numerical increase. The $ 209 billion defense budget has been presented in China's parliament at a time when tensions between China and India in the Ladakh region are underway and China's military tension with the US continues.

Giving information about the budget, China's official news agency Xinhua said that the planned defense expenditure of this year (2021) will be 1,350 billion yuan (about 209 billion US dollars). The agency said that this is the sixth consecutive year when a numerical increase has been made in the defense budget.

The agency has said that China's defense budget is close to a quarter of the US defense budget. America's defense budget has been kept at 740.5 billion dollars for 2021. At the same time, China's budget is more than three times that of India's defense budget. India's defense budget (including pension) is close to $ 65.7 billion.

According to the Global Times, China's defense budget was $ 196.44 billion last year.

Prime Minister Li described China's 35-year 2020 achievement of the defense budget in 2020 and proposed actions for 2021, describing last year ie 2020 as a major achievement for China's armed forces. However, he made no mention of sending 60,000 armed Chinese soldiers, who were prepared for the annual exercise, to disputed areas such as Pengang in eastern Ladakh. After this, India also had to deploy its troops there compared to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China. There was a conflict between the armies of the two countries for about eight months.

After a long round of negotiations, the forces of the two countries have retreated from the Penganga TSO region and talks are on to withdraw troops from other areas.

The PLA has also announced a 40 percent increase in salaries to attract skilled youth in the armed forces. At a conference last year, the Communist Party of China finalized plans to have a fully modern military equivalent to the US by 2027. The year 2027 is also the centenary year of the Chinese army. After America, China is the largest spending country on defense sector.