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BEIJING’S official military budget will grow by about 10 per cent in the coming year, legislative spokeswoman Fu Ying said yesterday.
The increase, to be confirmed tomorrow at the opening of the National People’s Congress annual session, would mark the fifth year in a row of double-digit increases despite the country’s slowing economy.
Growth fell to 7.4 per cent last year from 7.7 per cent the previous year.
The government said that the bigger budgets were aimed only at modernising and improving conditions for the 2.3 million-member People’s Liberation Army.
“China has a tougher road to travel than other large nations in terms of national defence modernisation,” said Ms Fu.
“We can rely only on ourselves for research and development of most of our military technology. Meanwhile, we need to ceaselessly improve conditions for our soldiers.”
She stressed that China’s military posture remained strictly defensive and that it had never used gunboats to advance its trade interests.
