Not so long ago, the United States ** Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2024 year. With the unanimous support of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the bill has officially entered into force.
The bill clearly stipulates that the U.S. defense and security budget for 2024 will be as high as $886 billion, an increase of $28 billion, or 3%, from this year. Although the increase may seem small, if you think about it another way, the increase of $28 billion has exceeded the military spending of many countries around the world.
The $886 billion mainly covers three major sectors: the Department of Defense's plan and military construction, the Department of Energy's security plan, and the intelligence support plan.
Among them, the R&D and procurement of advanced ** occupy the largest share, followed by personnel funds, including raising military salaries and benefits. In mid-2024, the United States will further increase the wages and benefits of military personnel, with the average salary increase reaching 52%。Finally, in order to ensure the need for the necessary defense expenditures.
It is worth mentioning that the Security Initiative to support Ukraine received an allocation of $800 million. Of course, this is not a comprehensive aid to Ukraine, but a special fund obtained by US industrial enterprises to supplement the shortage of equipment and ammunition allocated to Ukraine. This special fund, which was originally planned to be only $300 million, was eventually increased to $800 million, which also demonstrates the firm position of the United States on the Ukraine issue.
In addition, the bill spends $14.7 billion on defense in the Asia-Pacific region. It is mainly used for the construction of military facilities in Hawaii and military exchanges and cooperation with Asia-Pacific allies such as Japan and South Korea. What is particularly striking is the involvement of the treasure island area, which clearly reflects the targeting of the major powers in the East: The United States is trying to build a network of encirclement against China from Northeast Asia to the South Pacific, and the atmosphere of a new round of arms race is becoming more and more intense.
This is undoubtedly a huge challenge for us. If the arms race is involved, the economic pressure will increase dramatically;And if it does not participate, the United States, with its powerful technology and financial investment, will continue to widen the gap with us. Whatever the choice, we are faced with a difficult choice.
How does China respond to the aggressiveness of the United States?
First of all, we need to remain calm and sane and not be fooled by the US arms race. We are well aware that an arms race is not the best way to solve problems, but only brings more tension and conflict. Therefore, we should adhere to the path of peaceful development, persist in taking economic construction as the central task, and promote all-round progress.
Second, we also need to strengthen national defense and military modernization, and improve our military strength and response capabilities. But it should be noted that our military modernization is aimed at maintaining *** and sovereignty, and not for the sake of an arms race with the United States.
In addition, we also need to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with countries in the Asia-Pacific region to jointly maintain regional peace and stability. We should adhere to the principles of peace, cooperation and win-win results, and promote regional development and prosperity through mutual benefit and win-win results.
To sum up, in the face of the aggressiveness of the United States, we need to remain calm and rational, strengthen national defense construction and military modernization, strengthen cooperation and exchanges with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and strengthen international cooperation and coordination. Only in this way can we effectively respond to US provocations and challenges and safeguard our national interests and regional peace and stability.