China increases defence spending at slower pace than neighbours

China will increase its military spending by 7.2 per cent this year, a smaller increase than some neighbouring countries.

The annual budget, announced at the opening of the annual legislative session on Wednesday, said defence spending would rise from 1.67 trillion yuan to 1.78 trillion yuan (US$245.2 billion).

The increase is the same as the two previous years, but is relatively smaller than those announced by China’s neighbours such as India, Japan and the Philippines. Meanwhile European countries are also expected to announce significant increases in defence spending in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States.

Yue Gang, a military analyst and former colonel in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said the announcement suggested that Beijing thought the “international and Taiwan Strait situation had a limited impact” and it would stick to its own plans for military modernisation.

Beijing has set the target of becoming a “world-class” military by 2050.

Yue added that the latest funding announcement reflected the need to strike a balance between the fragile economic recovery and the country’s military plans and it could not be “too aggressive” on defence spending.