China’s defence budget will rise seven percent to $151 billion this year, the slowest annual percentage increase since 1991 and roughly in line with decelerating economic growth, Bloomberg News reported Monday. The budget is normally included in public documents released at the opening of the country
China’s defence budget will rise seven percent to $151 billion this year, the slowest annual percentage increase since 1991 and roughly in line with decelerating economic growth, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
The budget is normally included in public documents released at the opening of the country’s 10-day annual legislative session, which began Sunday, but was absent this year, adding to perennial concerns abroad over Chinese military transparency.
The 2017 budget will be 1.044 trillion yuan ($151 billion), a finance ministry information officer confirmed to Bloomberg News.
The government has not indicated why the figure was not publicly disclosed at the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress on Sunday as per tradition.
«We didn’t remain private deliberately,» the ministry officer told Bloomberg.
US President Donald Trump last week outlined plans to raise American military spending by around 10 percent.
The US military remains by far the world’s most powerful and most well-funded, with an annual budget of more than $600 billion.
China is engaged in a decades-long build-up and modernisation of its once-backward armed forces, as it seeks military clout commensurate with its economic might and increasingly asserts its disputed territorial claims in Asian waters.
