China upholds self-defense strategy, says FM on Putin’s remarks to discuss halving defense spending with US. BEIJING, Feb 24: China is committed to peaceful development. Its limited defense spending is completely out of the need of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and the need of maintaining world peace, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Tuesday, in response to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks on discussing halving defense spending with US, who also mentioned that China could join in.
According to US media outlet Newsweek, Putin stated on Monday that he is “not against” US President Donald Trump’s proposal to halve defense spending and is prepared to discuss the idea further. “I think it’s a good idea. The US would cut by 50 percent, and we would cut by 50 percent, and then China would join if it wanted,” Putin said.
The Russian president’s remarks came after Trump said on February 13 that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half, per AP.
Lin told a routine press conference on Tuesday that recent years have witnessed a steady increase in global defense spending. According to statistics, global defense spending in 2024 was about US$2.43 trillion, an all-time high. Behind the steady rise in global defense spending are increasingly tense international and regional security situations and growing security deficits. All parties face the common challenge of global security governance.
The international community, especially major countries, must take the lead in serving as a propeller for global solidarity and an anchor for world peace, Lin said.
“China upholds a self-defense strategy, pursues coordinated development between its economy and national defense, and never engages in any arms race with any country. It has worked for world peace through concrete actions and injected stability and certainty to the world,” Lin said.
Zhuo Hua, an international affairs expert at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that Russia’s positive attitude toward the issue of cutting defense spending is likely driven by the hope of creating common themes to restore diplomatic relations with the US.
Moscow also aims to alleviate the economic burden caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which could also improve its image in the international community, Zhuo said.
He pointed out that reducing military spending in the US is a challenging task and will be difficult to implement in reality. “Even if Washington manages to cut military expenditure, the plan will likely concentrate primarily on trimming the costs associated with an oversized bureaucratic structure,” Zhuo said.
The expert emphasized that China’s defense spending should not be compared to that of a super military power like the US.
US military spending accounted for 40 percent of the world’s total in 2024, the highest in the world, and higher than that of the following eight countries combined. The US “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025” further increased the military budget to about $895 billion, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on February 14.
“While in terms of purpose, a significant portion of US military spending is used for military intervention rather than homeland defense, largely driven by the need for maintaining military hegemony,” Zhuo said.
China’s military spending is always transparent, reasonable and moderate, primarily aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as fulfilling its responsibilities as a major power in maintaining world peace, rather than engaging in an arms race with any country, the expert noted.
