BEIJING - China plans to increase its defense budget by 7.5% in 2010, a major slowdown compared to last year's growth of 14.9%, a parliament spokesman said today.
The planned defense budget is 532.115 billion CNY (78 billion USD), a rise of about 37 billion CNY from last year's defense expenditure, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), told a press conference.
It is the first time for China's defense budget growth rate to drop to less than 10% in recent years, after a row of consecutive double-digit increase.
However, Li stressed that the figures would not be final until the budget plan is approved at the NPC annual session due to open in Beijing on Friday.
Taking into account China's large population, its vast territory, and its long coastline, the former Foreign Minister said the country's defense budget is "comparatively low."
China has always taken the road of peaceful development and keep in line with the defensive national defense policy, he said.
He said China's defense expenditure in recent years accounted for about 1.4% of its GDP, whereas the ratio was four percent for the United States, and more than two percent for the United Kingdom, France and Russia.
