China raises defence budget 7.2% as it pushes for global heft and regional tensions continue
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Beijing, March 5
China on Tuesday announced a 7.2% increase in its defence budget, which is already the world’s second-highest behind the United States at 1.6 trillion yuan (USD 222 billion), roughly mirroring the rise of the last year.
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Tensions with the US, Taiwan, Japan and neighbours 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.
AP
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