BEIJING: China projected a modest growth target of 6.5% of gross domestic product, the same as last year, while presenting the budgetary proposals to the National People’s Congress, the Chinese parliament, on Monday. But it opted for a significantly higher increase in defence spending at 8.1% over last year’s defence budget, reflecting Beijing’s rising military ambitions.
Presenting his “work report”, which is similar to budgetary proposals, Premier Li Keqiang made it clear that funds would not be an issue for Beijing to fulfill its military ambitions. The official Xinhua news agency indicated that the defence budget would be around $175 billion.
The modest growth projection comes soon after the
Communist Party of China decided to amend the constitution to remove the restriction on the president enjoying more than two terms. This is widely seen as a sign that President Xi’s plans to continue in the centre of power after the completion of his second term in 2023.
Li said China has also fulfilled its earlier goal of cutting troop numbers by 300,000 as part of plans to use more technology and less troops.
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