- China has released a white paper titled “China’s National Defence in the New Era”.The paper has touched upon various aspects of its military development comparing with India, US, Russia and other countries.
- The Chinese military has said that it is striving to promote security and stability along the India-China border and has created favourable conditions to resolve the Doklam standoff in 2017.
- The Doklam standoff began when Indian troops objected to the China building a road close to the narrow Chicken Neck corridor connecting with the North-Eastern states in an area also claimed by Bhutan.
- The standoff which led to severe disruption of relations between the two countries was finally resolved after China stopped the road construction, following which India withdrew its troops.
- The white paper has also highlighted the intensification of competition between the two million strong Chinese military with that of its counterparts in India,US,Russia and other countries.
- The white paper also noted that the international military competition is undergoing historic changes.New and high-tech military technologies based on IT are developing rapidly.
- The white paper also sought to play down heavy military expenditure, saying that China is spending less on defence budgets in terms of GDP in comparison to India,US and other countries.
- According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),China is the second-largest spender of defence in the world.It increased its military expenditure by 5% to USD 250 billion in 2018 against India’s USD 66.5 billion.The US which is the largest spender of defence had spent USD 649 billion in 2018.
