China to have a modern military by 2027

Africa China Review Staff writer

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) yesterday,  August 1^st marked the 94^th anniversary since its founding with a reflection of the vision and mission of guarding the security of the Chinese people and also contributing to global peace and security.  The Chinese   14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)  sets “making significant strides in the modernization of national defense and armed forces in the next five years” as one of the main goals for the development of the economy and society during the period. 

The centenary goal of the Chinese military is to have in place a modern military by 2027, according to the communique of the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee released last year 2020. “A prosperous country must be built with a strong military, because only a strong military can make a country safe and stable,” Xi said, during the 19^th CPC Central Committee bureau stressing the importance of accelerating the development and consolidation of national defense and strong armed forces. 

The Chinese army is the largest standing ground and navy forces in the world. Today, China is capable of producing and modernizing homemade military soft and hardware including submarines, surface combatants, amphibious warfare ships, aircraft carriers, and auxiliary ships as well as developing and fielding advanced weapons, sensors, and command and control capabilities.

Chinese military is involved in various peacekeeping operations in the world and the Chinese government is the second biggest financial contributor to the UN peacekeeping contributing an estimates $ 6 billion per year, which covers 15% of the UN peace peeking costs.

According to figures from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2020, China is the second country in the world after US in military expenditure with an estimated $252.0 billion, accounting for 1.7% of GDP and 13% of global spending. The US military expenditure is estimated at $778.0 billion accounting for 3.7% of GDP and 39% of global spending.