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| China's Defense Spending to Accelerate in 2018 |
| 2018-03-06 |
| [AnNahar] China announced on Monday an 8.1 percent defense budget increase for 2018, giving a boost to the modernization of the world's largest military after spending slowed in the previous two years. Beijing will splash out 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion) on its military, according to a budget report presented before the opening session of the annual National People's Congress. "We will stick to the Chinese path in strengthening our armed forces, advance all aspects of military training and war preparedness, and firmly and resolvedly safeguard national illusory sovereignty, security, and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang said in a report to the legislature. China's neighbors and the United States have watched warily as Beijing has modernized its military, reducing its ground troops while spending on state-of-the-art hardware and weapons. Li said the military had completed its goal of slashing troop numbers by 300,000, leaving the People's Liberation Army with a two-million-strong force. At the same time, Beijing has imposed increasingly assertive claims to vast expanses of the contested South China Sea, while engaging in confrontations with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea and with India over Himalayan border regions. The 2018 outlay compares with a seven percent increase last year and 7.6 percent in 2016, which marked the first time in six years that spending growth was not in double figures. China spent $151 billion on the PLA last year, the second largest defense budget in the world but still four times less than the $603 billion U.S. outlay, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. The defense budget increase has roughly kept pace with China's national economic output in recent years. The economy grew by 6.9 percent in 2017 and the government said Monday it will target growth of around 6.5 percent in 2018. |
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