China is confident of achieving medium to high-speed economic growth in 2016 on the back of sound economic fundamentals and the country’s reform campaign, a spokesperson with the annual session of the national political advisory body said Wednesday.
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Last year, defence spending was budgeted to rise 10.1 per cent to 886.9 billion Chinese yuan ($183.846 billion).
The defense budget was determined by both China’s defense needs and the national economic situation, she added – the country saw its weakest growth in a quarter of a century past year.
The U.S. Defense Department budget for 2016 is $573 billion. They often serve as the think-tank for the government, legislative and judicial organs, and put forward proposals on major political and social issues in the world’s most populous nation and second largest economy.
The military build-up has rattled nerves around the region, particularly because China has taken an increasingly robust line on its territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas. China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress, will meet just two days later.
The reduced increase comes as China under President Xi Jinping seeks to craft a more efficient and effective People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military.
Exports of Chinese equipment and production capacity will not only help China tackle downward pressure but also serve as a boon for importers to prop up growth and increase employment, Wang said.
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Beijing is also feeling public pressure to show it can protect its claims to the South China Sea after the United States began conducting “freedom of navigation” operations near islands where China has been carrying out controversial reclamation work and stationing advanced weapons.
