China to spend $175 billion on defence, announces 8.1% hike in army expenditure

NewsBharati    05-Mar-2018
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Beijing, March 5: China has allotted a whopping USD 175 billion for defence in its budget for 2018, a hike of 8.1%. The Xi Jinping-led country is the second largest spender on defence after the US.

In 2017, China had included $150 billion for its defence budget. Almost every year the budget has seen double-digit growth with the exception of 2003 (9.6 per cent), 2010 (7.5 per cent), 2016 (7.6 per cent) and last year’s 7 percent.

 

China has no desire to overturn the existing international order and its increasingly powerful military does not constitute a threat to others, the spokesperson for the country’s ceremonial legislature said Sunday.

“In recent years China has increased funding for the military by a modest degree, a large part of which is to make up for the previous shortfalls,” said Zhang, who is also vice-minister of foreign affairs.

Zhang said China would spend more on its military to upgrade weapons and equipment, as well as to improve the welfare, training and living conditions of troops.

With $602.8 billion, the US allocates the largest amount of money for defence. US President Donald Trump said the budget boost was aimed at restoring America’s military might after years of spending cuts under Barack Obama.