China's Defence Budget
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2015
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As China shows off its military muscle in a parade commemorating victory over Japan in World War Two, we examine what lies behind this dazzling display of hardware. China's defence budget has doubled over the last decade, and some of its neighbours are worried. We ask defence analyst, Michael Caffrey of IHS Jane's, whether the numbers are a cause for concern. Also in the programme, as part of the BBC's India season, we hear from Kolkata where millions of Muslims continue to struggle for equal rights in the jobs market. The government is promising tougher action to redress the prejudices against them. And as Azerbaijan this week jails one of its leading investigative journalists and anti-corruption activists, Khadija Ismayilova, we hear her recent assessment of the way economic and political power have been centralised in the hands of the ruling family of President Aliyev. What's really going on in the oil-rich country? Is there an oil curse in Azerbaijan and should this affect international attitudes towards it? We speak to Barnaby Pace of the campaign group Global Witness, who has conducted his own research into who really controls Azerbaijan's oil wealth. (Picture: Chinese soldiers ride armoured vehicles in the Tiananmen Square military parade; Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily. Coming up, an enormous military |
| 0:09.8 | parade in Beijing today. Is the country spiraling defence spending a cause for concern? |
| 0:15.7 | We're expecting the total Chinese defence budget to go to around 260 billion by the end |
| 0:20.6 | of the decade, which is just less than half of the current US defence budget to go to around 260 billion by the end of the decade, |
| 0:21.4 | which is just less than half of the current US defence budget. |
| 0:24.4 | Also in the programme, we look at the obstacles facing Muslims seeking work in India. |
| 0:29.5 | I went to work in a Hindu household. |
| 0:32.2 | But they said to me that we won't employ Muslims. |
| 0:35.4 | That's why a lot of maids change their names. |
| 0:38.3 | We need the work to survive. |
| 0:40.3 | All that and more coming up in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:04.6 | A sound of just some of the military parade on the streets of Beijing today, guns, planes, marching soldiers and rockets. |
| 1:13.1 | Marching along the Channelman Square, a curious spectacular in many ways commemorating China's victory over Japan in the Second World War, |
| 1:19.8 | since most of the Chinese citizens that you'd think it was meant to impress were actually allowed close enough to see it. |
| 1:23.3 | TV did get a good look, though, as did President Xi Jinping. |
| 1:27.3 | He took to the podium to speak of China's military prowess. |
| 1:39.9 | The victory of this anti-war effort has totally broken the Japanese intent to make into slaves. |
| 1:49.3 | Such victory has started our journey to a new China. |
| 1:57.1 | Part of a multi-gun salute there today, the symbolism of the event won't have been lost on many of China's neighbours, though, including Japan. |
| 2:01.5 | The country has been growing increasingly assertive militarily of late. |
| 2:05.7 | For example, in the disputed South China Sea, China's fighting capability is clearly improving. |
| 2:11.8 | Its defence budget has spiralled of late. |
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