*CHINA TO INCREASE DEFENSE SPENDING BY 7.2% THIS YEAR, FASTER THAN GDP TARGET - 🇨🇳🇨🇳
BEIJING -China will boost defence spending by 7.2% this year, slightly outpacing last year's increase and faster than the government's modest economic growth forecast, as Premier Li Keqiang called for the armed forces to boost combat preparedness.The defence budget will be closely watched by China's neighbours and the United States, who are concerned by Beijing's strategic intentions and development of its military, especially as tensions have spiked in recent years over Taiwan.
This year's hike in defence spending marks the eighth consecutive single-digit increase. As in previous years, no breakdown of the spending was given, only the overall amount and the rate of increase. China staged war games near Taiwan last August to express anger at the visit to Taipei of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
China, with the world's largest military in terms of personnel, is busy adding a slew of new hardware, including aircraft carriers and stealth fighters.Beijing says its military spending for defensive purposes is a comparatively low percentage of its GDP and that critics want to demonise it as a threat to world peace.
"As China strengthens the new area of cognitive warfare over Taiwan, I think it will also use the budget to build up its cyber and space capabilities, as well as its submarine forces to target undersea cables," he said. China has long argued that it needs to close the gap with the United States. China, for example, has three aircraft carriers, compared with 11 in active service for the United States.
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