China yesterday announced a double-digit hike in military spending in 2012, in a move likely to fuel concerns about Beijing’s rapid military build-up and increase regional tensions. The defence budget will rise 11.2 per cent to 670.27 billion yuan ($106.41 billion), said Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for China’s national Parliament, citing a budget report submitted to the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.

The real budget is at least double the published one

The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when spending rose by 12.7 per cent but is still likely to fuel worries over China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and push its neighbours to forge closer ties with the United States.

Mr Li described the budget as “relatively low” as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with other countries and said it was aimed at “safeguarding sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity”.

“We have a large territory and a long coastline but our defence spending is relatively low compared with other major countries,” Mr Li told reporters, adding, “It will not in the least pose a threat to other countries.”

China has been increasing its military spending by double digits for most of the past decade, during which time its economy, now the world’s second largest, grew at a blistering pace. The People’s Liberation Army – the world’s largest with an estimated 2.3 million troops – is hugely secretive about its defence programmes, but insists its modernisation is purely defensive in nature.

The rapid military build-up has nevertheless set alarm bells ringing across Asia and in Washington, which announced in January a defence strategy focused on countering China’s rising power.

Analysts said the smaller-than-expected increase in spending this year was an attempt by Beijing to ease concerns in the US and the region about its growing military might. “It is doubtful whether the message will get across because most countries know that the real budget is at least double the published one,” said Willy Lam, a leading China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Mr Lam said funding for modernising the country’s military was not included in the published budget, which mostly covered salaries for defence personnel and maintenance of existing equiment.

Money for research and development of modern weaponry “comes from elsewhere”, he said.

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