China’s increase in military spending, the biggest rise in three years, was proportionate and low, state media said.
China’s increase in military spending for 2018 — the biggest rise in three years — was proportionate and low, and Beijing had not been goaded into an arms race with the United States, state media said on Tuesday.
China on Monday unveiled an 8.1 percent rise in defense spending at the opening of parliament, fuelling an ambitious military modernisation programme and making its neighbours, particularly Japan and self-ruled Taiwan, nervous. The 2018 defense budget will be 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion).
In an editorial, the official China Daily said the figure had prompted «finger-pointing from the usual suspects.»
«China’s defense budget is neither the largest in size — it accounts for just one-fourth of the military spending of the United States — nor does it have the fastest growth rate,» the English-language newspaper said.
«And if calculated in per capita terms, China’s military lags well behind other major countries.»
China insists its military spending is transparent and that it poses a threat to nobody, simply needing to update old equipment and defend its legitimate interests, even as it is increasingly assertive over disputes in the East and South China Seas and on self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims.
