China in recent years has responded to calls for greater military transparency by releasing its defense budget. Not this year, it seems.
Former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Tung Chee-hwa, lower right, and current Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, left at second row, attend the opening session of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Sunday, March 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
BEIJING — China in recent years has responded to calls for greater military transparency by releasing its defense budget.
Not this year, it seems.
The defense and finance ministries did not immediately respond to questions about why the government failed to provide a figure for its annual military spending at the opening of its rubber-stamp parliament’s annual session on Sunday.
On Saturday, National People’s Congress spokeswoman Fu Ying told reporters the budget would increase around 7 percent in 2017 over last year.
The U. S. and others have routinely asked China to be more forthcoming about the goals of its ambitious military modernization program, under which the budget has grown by double digit percentages for most of the past two decades. Other observers say actual military spending could be considerably higher because China doesn’t include certain items such as the purchase of armaments from overseas.
