US military spending is on the rise as the principles of ‘put China first’ | War Stories

Washington, DC – A few months after the inauguration of US President Joe Biden drew the last American troops from Afghanistan as part of its commitment to end the countryendless wars“The United States Congress approved a defense budget of $ 777.7bn, the fifth increase from last year.

Senate it’s too late budget law Wednesday in votes 89-10, following the US House of Representatives, which passed the bill last week.

Although the measure has been hailed by leading members of the Democratic and Republican parties as a double whammy, progressive lawmakers and civil society groups are questioning the value of the budget – and criticizing policymakers who have justified themselves in promoting competition with China.

“For the past 20 years, we have heard that terrorist terrorists should be growing on the Pentagon’s budget,” said Stephen Miles, chief of Win Without War, a Washington-DC-based group that promotes American citizens who are making progress. process.

“After the war in Afghanistan is over and interest has begun in China, we feel that the threat is justified,” Miles told Al Jazeera.

Copying China

Several US lawmakers have mentioned China as a key player in the defense budget, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a regular Democrat, he said on Twitter on December 7 that the law “makes a lot of money in defense of our country, and is taking action to address China’s growing threat”.

Sometimes, pushing to look at China takes on a very dangerous word. “The threat posed by the Chinese military is not a threat; it is not something that can happen in 2030, 2035 or any other time in the future, “said Republican Senator Jim Inhofe. he said in April, warning of a reduction in defense spending. “It simply came to our notice then. Right now. It only gets worse over time, ”he said.

Relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated amid much controversy in recent years, including a trade war during the Donald Trump administration and the excessive US pressure on China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Chinese government has criticized US-Taiwan relations, an independent island that China considers itself its own, and criticized Washington’s efforts to expand its alliance with its neighbors, including recent attempts to offer Australia and submarines with nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the US has criticized China for its actions “killing people”Against Uighur Muslims in the western part of Xinjiang, and Washington recently announced diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing China’s human rights violations.

But both adults countries say is trying to agree on common issues such as global warming and the COVID-19 vaccine, while directing competition to avoid further conflicts.

However, Biden officials also pointed to China in a clear call for $ 753bn security in May. “To protect the country, the department in this budget is looking good in Beijing and providing funding to establish China as our problem,” the Deputy Secretary of Defense said. Kathleen Hicks he did at that time.

Congress ended up giving Biden executives about $ 24bn more than they had anticipated, taking annual self-defense bills the most recent amount of $ 740bn arrived in the last year of Trump.

Progressives demonstrations

But the NDAA passage in the Senate this week encouraged protests from developers who have been seeking to reduce U.S. military spending in order to free up more spending on domestic needs.

The US is the largest military expenditure in the world, with the Pentagon budget doubling Russia and China’s annual defense budget.

“We have waged the longest war in U.S. history, yet Congress has only given $ 768 BILLION a defense budget – more than the military funding of the next 11 countries combined,” Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Don’t tell me we can’t afford to fight poverty, stop student debt, go on vacation and deal with climate change.

Earlier this year, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders said many of his colleagues did not seem to be affected by the decline and the country’s debt when it comes to the use of weapons – which he calls for in protest of spending money on social media.

“People are sleeping outside; people dying because they do not have access to medical care; Children who are not able to get the childhood education they need – ‘not a problem, they can’t afford it’, “Sanders said in a speech to the Senate on October 17.

“But somehow when it comes to security and the needs of a military and industrial, we can’t afford to pay them. ”

Some also said that the NDAA was approved with the support of two parties in Congress at the same time Democratic leaders are struggling to pass the approved Biden House Build Back Better plan. in the Senate.

Part of the law, which will grow social security net, climate change funding and protection for elementary school children, with a cost of $ 1.75 trillion over a decade, an average of $ 175bn per year – part of the security budget.

“The $ 768 billion defense case that the Senate has just passed is $ 30 billion more than Trump demanded to hold the military in its final budget,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “And it’s 4x the size of the Build Back Better bill. Yet no one asks, ‘How much do you pay?’

This is why I did not vote for NDAA. We spend billions on weapons that our soldiers do not want, but teachers are forced to fight for $ 1 because our schools do not have much money. As a congressman & brother of two public school teachers, this is a disgrace. https://t.co/81ARFZsjpf

– Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) December 13, 2021

Rising China

But self-defense activists argue that the US military should be at the forefront of a country where China – and to a lesser extent, Russia – is on the rise.

They see China increasing its war budget, up to $ 209bn in 2021 about 7 percent increase from last year. While the funding is still below the U.S. security budget, outdoor dogs in Washington say Beijing earns a lot of money because of low labor costs and low costs.

US Security debt only contains a wealth of Chinese resources, as well as a large amount of research, development, testing and testing (RDTE) funding that is seen as an effort to prepare the military to address Chinese expertise. The NDAA also wants Biden to build a “highway” to Beijing.

The Department of Defense is monitoring looking closely at China can be tracked in the 2018 National Defense Strategy; a document produced every four years outlining the Pentagon’s priorities.

“As China continues to grow economically and militarily … it will continue to pursue a modern war plan that seeks to take control of the Indo-Pacific region in the near future and the migration of the United States to achieve a global future in the future,” 2018 report reads.

William Hartung, a writer and security analyst, said Washington’s experience with China was political and economic. “I don’t think it’s really a threat of war. But this seems to be a big part of the US approach, which I think is wrong,” Hartung told Al Jazeera in an interview in October, after the House approved the first version of the law.

He added that there is no problem in between Washington and Beijing has a military response that could lead to an increase in defense spending, and warns that a war with China – a nuclear power – could be an “unprecedented disaster”.

“There needs to be more space for more debate on national security,” Hartung said. “And it ‘s been difficult to sell in Congress so far.”