China to boost military budget by about 10% in 2015March 4, 2015 - 11:44 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - China's military budget will rise by about 10% in 2015, an official said, according to BBC News. Fu Ying, spokeswoman for China's annual parliament session the National People's Congress (NPC), gave the "rough" figure and said it was in line with overall spending growth. A formal announcement will be made on Thursday, March 5, when the NPC opens. China has seen several years of double-digit defense spending increases. It is the world's second-highest military spender, but remains far behind the U.S. Last year, China's defense spending rose 12.2% to $130bn. In comparison, for the fiscal year 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama has requested a budget of $585bn. China says the spending is required to modernize the People's Liberation Army - the world's largest standing military. It is pouring investment into hi-tech equipment such as submarines and stealth jets, the BBC says. It has also been investing in naval forces, including an aircraft carrier. Recent media reports that a second was being built were swiftly deleted. China's neighbors are closely watching its military investment. In recent years Beijing has taken a more assertive stance on maritime territorial disputes with both Japan and South East Asian nations, leading to a rise in regional tensions. In response, Japan has begun increasing its military budget, as has India - which has a disputed land border with China. U.S. officials also fear that China understates its current military spending, suspecting the real figure could be considerably higher. Fu said China had not forgotten lessons from history - "those who fall behind will get bullied". "Our country will achieve modernization, of which national defense modernization is an important part," she added. "This requires a certain guaranteed amount of funding." Related links: Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |