China raises defense budget 7.2% as it pushes for global heft and regional tensions continue

In this photo released March 31, 2023, by China's Xinhua News Agency, a soldier fires a weapon during a combat training of the 42nd fleet of the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy at an unspecified location in the sea, Jan. 31, 2023. (Ma Yubin/Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING -

China on Tuesday announced a 7.2 per cent increase in its defence budget, which is already the world's second-highest behind the United States at 1.6 trillion yuan (US$222 billion), roughly mirroring the rise of the last year.

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Tensions with the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and neighbors who share claims to the crucial South China Sea are seen as furthering growth in increasingly high-tech military technologies from stealth fighters to aircraft carriers and a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The official budget figure announced Tuesday at the opening session of the rubber-stamp legislature's annual meeting is considered by many foreign experts to be only a fraction of spending by the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, once spending on research and development and foreign weapons purchases are considered.