The military spending and the budget allocated military development is seen as a factor in the economic slowdown of China but President Xi Jinping will reportedly still authorize more spending this year as he is determined to strengthen the country's military assets.

According to experts, one possible reason behind China's desire to continue developing its military is Washington's renewed focus on Asian countries. The additional spending this year will reportedly be used to procure more anti-submarine ships and develop more aircraft carriers.

Like Us on Facebook

Last year's military spending was at US$130 billion, making China the second country to spend as much next to the United States.

China has been feeling pressure since the U.S. announced that it will be launching warships in the Asia Pacific by 2020. The U.S. has been trying to bolster alliances with Japan and Philippines, two of the many countries that China has been having a dispute with regarding maritime territories.

Xi is set to announce the military budget during the annual meeting of the parliament of China on March 5 but all the details will not be open to the public. According to reports, the budget has been increasing for two decades now and that the defense outlays of China could be much larger than what is being shown to the international community.

However, despite the modernization of China's military, the economic growth of the country continues to decrease as the growth was only 7.4 percent last year. It is expected to further dip to only seven percent this year.

Aside from the budget allocated for military spending, another factor seen is the Foxhunt project of Xi that aims to crackdown on the corrupt government officials who fled the country years ago. Xi has been working with different governments internationally to have these people brought back to China for prosecution.

According to a security specialist from Lingnan University in Hong Kong, Zhang Baohui, Xi dreams of a strong military as it is part of his strategy for the grand rise of China. It is said that by September, the People's Army Liberation of China will be unveiling homegrown weapons during a major parade. 

TagsChina military, military spending