China has the world's largest standing army, the world's largest navy, and recently launched its third aircraft carrier. It also has the largest aviation force in the Indo-Pacific, with more than half of its fighter planes consisting of fourth or fifth-generation models. Additionally, China boasts a massive stockpile of missiles, stealth aircraft, bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons, advanced surface ships, and nuclear-powered submarines.
While the government says most of the spending increases will go toward improving welfare for troops, the PLA has greatly expanded its overseas presence in recent years. China has already established one foreign military base in Djibouti and is refurbishing Cambodia's Ream Naval Base, which could give it at least a semi-permanent presence on the Gulf of Thailand facing the disputed South China Sea.
The modernization effort has prompted concerns among the U.S. and its allies, particularly over Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary. In his remarks on Taiwan, Premier Li Keqiang said the government had followed the party’s "overall policy for the new era on resolving the Taiwan question and resolutely fought against separatism and countered interference."
Tensions have been rising with the U.S. over China's militarization of islands in the South China Sea, which it claims virtually in its entirety, and most recently, the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. east coast. The huge capacity of China's defense industry and Russia's massive expenditures of artillery shells and other materiel in its war on Ukraine have raised concerns in the U.S. and elsewhere that Beijing may provide Moscow with military assistance.
