Beijing: China announced on Tuesday that it would boost its defence spending in 2024, as hostility over Taiwan and in the South China Sea grows.
The 7.2 percent increase, identical to last year’s figure, was announced at the start of the annual meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC).
China will spend 1.665 trillion yuan ($231.4 billion) on defence in 2024, according to the budget report that lays out the government’s financial plans for the year ahead.
Still, China’s military spending is around three times smaller than Washington’s in recent years.
The world’s second-largest economy will maintain “reasonable growth” in its defence budget to “safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests”, NPC spokesman Lou Qinjian said.
China has the world’s second-largest defence budget behind the United States, even though the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) surpasses the US military by number of personnel.
