China hikes defence budget to $152 billion

China has hiked its military spending by seven per cent to $152 billion, about three times higher than that of India, as Beijing braced for countering America’s push into the disputed South China Sea (SCS).

After skipping the customary mention of the figures of defence spending in the work report submitted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to lawmakers on Sunday, state-run Xinhua news agency on Monday announced that the military budget for this year stands at 1.04 trillion yuan ($152 billion).

China’s defence budget for 2017 will grow seven per cent from the actual figure in 2016, Xinhua quoted an official with Ministry of Finance as saying on Monday.

“The country’s military spending this year will stand at 1.04 trillion yuan [about $152 billion] with 1.02 trillion yuan from the central budget,” the Xinhua report said. This is the first time that China’s military spending crossed a trillion yuan.

Last year, China’s military spending was 954.35 billion yuan, a 7.6 per cent increase from 2015.

China’s defence budget is about three times higher than India’s $53.5 billion.

There was no explanation about why the amount of the annual defence spending was not mentioned in Mr. Li’s annual work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Sunday.

On March 4, NPC spokesperson Fu Ying said China’s defence budget would be increased by seven per cent accounting for 1.3 per cent of the country’s GDP, compared with NATO members’ pledge to dedicate at least two per cent of GDP to defence.

“You should ask them what their intentions are,” Ms. Fu told reporters, adding that China “has never inflicted harm on other countries.”