China To Raise Defence Spending By 7.5%, Lower Than 2018

• 03.05.2019, 12:16
•  Asia,  World

© Артем Иванов/ТАСС

China announced Tuesday a 7.5 percent increase in military spending in 2019, lower than last year as the country faces an economic slowdown, but still likely to make Asian neighbours nervous, ndtv reports.

It is working to provide the two million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) with state-of-the-art hardware, spending heavily on stealth warplanes, aircraft carriers and other weaponry.

Beijing has also stepped up its rhetoric against any independence movements in self-ruled Taiwan and continues to assert its vast territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea.

The government will spend 1.19 trillion yuan ($177.6 billion) on defence in 2019, after it increased its outlay by 8.1 percent to 1.11 trillion yuan in 2018, according to a government report presented at the start of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Boasting the world's largest army, China's military spending is second only to the United States, which budgeted $716 billion for defence in 2019. Beijing has not posted double-digit spending increases since 2015.