US defense budget a big threat to world peace

Intending to out-compete China and making the United States militarily much stronger, the Joe Biden administration has proposed to increase the United States Department of Defense budget to a record high of $842 billion in fiscal 2024, up 3.2 percent over the previous fiscal. That makes it the biggest-ever defense budget in nominal terms.

In contrast, China, which the US has designated as its biggest competitor, proposed a relatively small $223 billion defense budget for this year at the ongoing annual session of the 14th National People's Congress.

For all his wishful thinking, Biden's ambitious defense plan could hit a major roadblock in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. But it is highly possible that the rival Democratic and Republican parties can work together to pass the defense budget because it is targeted at China, against which they always gang up.

It seems there is no one to remind Biden that over 44,000 Americans were killed in gun-related violence in 2022 alone, nearly 10 times the number of US soldiers who died in the Iraq War. As of March 7 this year, the US had already seen 104 gun-related violent incidents which claimed more than 6,000 lives.

Against this backdrop, the $842 billion could have been used to better safeguard US citizens' lives and maintain global peace rather than being squandered on nuclear weapons and an imaginary competition with China that only helps the US military industry to earn humungous profits.

Not to mention the US has spent huge sums of money on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have claimed more than 500,000 lives. And yet it keeps supplying military aid to keep the conflict in Eurasia alive so US arms manufacturers can make more and more profits. The US defense spending will not do anyone any good. True, it may help weaken Russia but that would be at the cost of the Ukrainian people's lives and Europe's security.

It is clear therefore that the US' skyrocketing defense budgets are indeed a big threat to world peace.

The author is a writer with China Daily.