China to increase defense budget by 7.2% again

According to a draft budget report submitted to the national legislature on Wednesday, the Chinese government is seeking a defense budget of 1.78 trillion yuan ($246 billion) for the 2025 fiscal year, a 7.2-percent year-on-year increase.

If approved by lawmakers, the proposed expenditure will maintain single-digit growth for the 10th consecutive year since 2016, and the percentage increase will be the same as it was during the past two fiscal years.

The figures were included in the report prepared by the Ministry of Finance and distributed to lawmakers at the opening meeting of the third session of the 14th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

At the NPC session last year, the central government proposed a defense budget of 1.67 trillion yuan for the 2024 fiscal year, a 7.2 percent year-on-year increase. The 2023 defense budget was proposed at 1.55 trillion yuan, also up 7.2 percent from the previous year.

The annual Government Work Report, released at Wednesday's opening meeting, says that over the past year, significant progress has been made in national defense and military affairs.

"In the new year, we will thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military, and follow the military strategic guidelines for the new era. We will … spare no effort to achieve the goals set by the Party for the centenary of the People's Liberation Army," the report reads.

"We will further advance military training and preparations for war, accelerate the development of new combat capabilities and establish a modern military theory system with Chinese characteristics. We will firmly safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," it says.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Lou Qinjian, spokesman for the third session of the 14th NPC, said that China's military strength is needed by the country and is also good for the world.

"Peace requires strength to safeguard," Lou told reporters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. "A China with strong national defense capabilities can better defend its national sovereignty, security and development interests, more effectively fulfill its international responsibilities as a major country, and better maintain global peace and stability."

He said the proportion of defense spending to China's GDP has remained below 1.5 percent for many years, lower than the world average.

A military observer in Beijing who wished to be identified only as Wu said on Wednesday that considering the increasingly sophisticated scenarios in international geopolitics, it is necessary and important for China to continue strengthening its defensive capabilities so that it could better safeguard its security and interests.

"Everyone can see that China is facing a growing number of threats and provocations from some foreign countries willing to use every method to hinder our nation's development and create troubles for us," he said.

"A strong, even formidable military is the guarantee of a country's peaceful development. This has been proved through numerous cases in history."

In addition, it takes a lot of money to improve service members' overall treatment and their family members' livelihoods, which also justifies a moderate defense budget increase, Wu noted.

The world's largest spender on military affairs is the United States, whose proposed military budget for 2025 is $850 billion. A large proportion of the money would be used against China, according to the US' National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, which lists China as an "adversarial nation".