China's defense budget will increase by "about 7%" in 2017, a member of parliament said today, a percentage similar to last year (7,6%).
According to the Athenian News Agency, Fu Ying, a representative of the People's National Assembly, made this assessment of the increase in Chinese military spending.
The announcement of China's defense budget is always made in early March. However, this year marks an additional few days after the announcement of the new US President Donald Trump that he is seeking a large increase in US military spending (about 10%).
Rising Chinese military spending, on the other hand, signals a stabilization trend after last year's increase, which increased China's defense budget to 954 billion yuan (132 billion euros). This is the second consecutive year that the growth rate is in single digits.
Asian and Western analysts, however, estimate that the real costs of the Chinese armed forces are much higher.
Beijing's military budget is being scrutinized by countries in the region, especially given China's claims to the South China Sea.
Asked if China could be considered a "military threat" to other countries, Fu dismissed any criticism. "In the last ten years, there have been so many conflicts and so many wars in the world, causing countless dead and wounded (…) Which of these wars is China responsible for?" He said, adding that "China has never harmed another country." .
Although China has increased its defense budget tenfold in 15 years, it lags far behind the United States. The U.S. military has a budget of $ 604,5 billion (575 billion euros), according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.
However, China's military spending is higher than that of Russia (third in the world at 56 billion euros), Saudi Arabia (54,1), the United Kingdom (49,9), or France (44,9). , according to the same source.
The Chinese military, whose troops have doubled since the 80s, remains the largest in the world in terms of staff (2 million), not counting NATO.
The exact amount of Chinese military spending will be announced tomorrow in the Chinese parliament.
Source: newsbeast, gr