China’s consistent defense budget over the years is a testament to its confidence in the peaceful reunification with the Taiwan region, according to Zhou Bo, senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. In a recent discussion following the Xi-Biden summit in San Francisco, Zhou shed light on how the Chinese mainland perceives the Taiwan question amid evolving China-U.S. relations.
“For the Taiwan Strait to remain peaceful, the best thing the United States can do is to let the Chinese mainland believe that peace is still possible across the strait,” Zhou emphasized. He highlighted that the Chinese mainland’s patience on the issue is evident in the absence of any set timetable for reunification and the maintenance of a defense budget consistently under two percent of GDP.
Zhou pointed out that a nation’s defense budget is a significant indicator of its intentions and perceptions of security. “Defense budget would not lie,” he noted. “It tells you a lot about how this country considers its own security environment, how it thinks about its surrounding situations, or how it thinks about its rivals.”
China’s defense spending, remaining around 1.5 percent of its GDP, is lower than the NATO standard of two percent. “We have never seen a drastic increase or decrease in this budget,” Zhou observed. This stability reflects China’s confidence in its security environment and its commitment to peaceful reunification with the Taiwan region.
The consistent defense budget underscores China’s belief in maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait. “It tells a lot about our confidence in eventual peaceful reunification,” Zhou affirmed, suggesting that China’s approach is rooted in patience and a long-term vision for harmony.
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China's defense budget signals confidence in peaceful reunification
cgtn.com
