Are we ready Ron?
Are they?:
March 7, 2000
Chinese military gets large budget boost
By Charles Hutzler
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING ? China announced a 12.7 percent increase in military spending yesterday ? at least the eighth straight double-digit jump ? as the army tried to influence rival Taiwan's presidential election and again threatened war.
The $14.5 billion defense budget, presented by the finance minister to the legislature, continues higher spending begun in the early 1990s to modernize the 2.5 million-member military. Among its top missions: preparing to attack if Taiwan moves toward outright independence.
[However, China's defense budget remains small compared to the United States' defense budget of $293 billion for fiscal 2000. The United States' current level of military spending represents a $1 billion increase over fiscal 1999.] Although the People's Liberation Army is at least several years from posing a formidable threat, commanders have used the run-up to Taiwan's March 18 presidential election to warn against rising separatism. The warnings are partly due to real fears and partly aimed at getting more government money, Chinese and foreign analysts said.
Last month, the navy sailed its newest acquisition ? a Russian-built destroyer armed with nuclear-capable missiles ?through the Taiwan Strait, which divides the mainland and Taiwan. Yesterday, Defense Minister Chi Haotian said the government was on "a high state of alert" for separatist actions on Taiwan.
"The Chinese People's Liberation Army is strengthening its combat readiness to, at any time and under any conditions, carry out the sacred mission of defending the unity of the motherland," Mr. Chi told military delegates to the legislature, according to remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.(cont)
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