Update | China’s military budget to increase ‘about 10 per cent’, lowest rise in five years
National People’s Congress spokeswoman Fu Ying tells his week’s annual plenum that China plans to increase its military budget by about 10 per cent this year.
China said yesterday it would increase its military budget by "about 10 per cent" this year.
State media said it could be the lowest increase in five years, amid a slowdown in economic growth and close scrutiny from neighbouring countries.
The official figure will be released today as the national legislature starts its full meeting in Beijing, where Premier Li Keqiang is to make his annual government report.
Fu Ying, the plenum spokeswoman for the National People's Congress, said this year's defence budget rise would be on par with spending growth of the central government. "Military modernisation … needs budgetary support," Fu said. "China's military modernisation has been a painstaking process, as the military has mostly depended on itself to research and design its equipment."
Beijing officially increased its military budget by 12.2 per cent last year to 808 billion yuan (HK$1 trillion), though overseas analysts believe the real figure may be much higher than that.
Still, that figure is about a quarter of the US defence budget, a proposed US$534 billion this year in addition to US$51 billion for the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
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The US Army's commander in Asia, General Vincent Brooks, told Reuters that China's rapidly increasing defence spending was "not a cause for alarm unless we find that China is using that growth … in a way that is provocative". But he added that some places in the Asia-Pacific saw "provocative and somewhat disruptive behaviours" by China.
In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed concern over the continuing rises in China's military spending and its opaqueness. "We will keep paying close attention to relevant developments," Suga said.
Fu said China's military strategy was defensive.
Beijing-based retired Major General Xu Guangyu said the rise was likely to be between 10.4 and 11 per cent, based on last year's GDP of 63 trillion yuan and a 7.4 per cent growth rate. A third of the budget would pay the salaries of the army's 2.3 million personnel.
"A pay rise is one of the key reasons to increase the budget to help soldiers and their families compete with inflation. An increase of about 10 per cent is acceptable as GDP growth slowed last year," Xu said.
