China’s defence spending to accelerate in 2018

BEIJING: China announced on Monday an 8.1 percent defence budget increase for 2018, giving a boost to the modernisation of the world’s largest military after spending slowed in the previous two years.

Beijing will splash out 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion) on its military, according to a budget report presented before the opening session of the annual National People’s Congress. "We will stick to the Chinese path in strengthening our armed forces, advance all aspects of military training and war preparedness, and firmly and resolvedly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang said in a report to the legislature.

Li said the military had completed its goal of slashing troop numbers by 300,000, leaving the People’s Liberation Army with a two-million-strong force. At the same time, Beijing has imposed increasingly assertive claims to vast expanses of the contested South China Sea, while engaging in confrontations with Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea and with India over Himalayan border regions.