{"id":26216,"date":"2026-03-05T04:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=26216"},"modified":"2026-03-05T04:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:50:07","slug":"china-to-boost-defense-spending-by-7-slowest-pace-since-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=26216","title":{"rendered":"China to boost defense spending by 7%, slowest pace since 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China’s liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles DongFeng-5C, which have a global strike range, pass through Tian’anmen Square during the V-Day military parade on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China.<\/p>\n

China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BEIJING \u2014 China plans to increase its defense spending by 7% this year, the slowest rise in its annual military expenditure since 2021, according to a budget plan by the Ministry of Finance released Thursday.<\/p>\n

The proposal comes as conflict in the Middle East escalates and tensions over Taiwan persist, amid a broader rise in global geopolitical fault lines.<\/p>\n

For the last three years, China has budgeted a 7.2% annual increase in defense spending. Beijing had increased spending by\u00a07.1% in 2022\u00a0and 6.8% in 2021, according to official data.<\/p>\n

According to a government work report released Thursday, Beijing will accelerate the development of advanced combat capabilities and pursue the “high-quality” modernization of its national defense and armed forces.<\/p>\n

The working report also highlighted China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which was commissioned in November 2025. Some of China’s latest weapon systems, including long-range missiles, were displayed during a military parade in September.<\/p>\n

Beijing also said it would “resolutely fight against separatist forces aimed at ‘Taiwan independence,’ and oppose external interference.”<\/p>\n

China is set to kick off its 8-day National People’s Congress on Thursday, an annual parliamentary meeting that officially approves the budget and development goals for the year.<\/p>\n

Last year, China proposed a national defense budget of 1.78 trillion yuan ($244.99 billion at the time). However, analysts believe the official figures are understated and exclude significant “off-budget” items. <\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2025 report to Congress<\/a> on China’s military, Beijing spent between $304 billion and $377 billion on defense in 2024 \u2014 about 32% to 63% higher than its officially announced budget of $231 billion.<\/p>\n

Beijing accounted for nearly 44% of Asia’s defense spending<\/a> in 2025, up from 39% in 2017, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n

China is also second to the U.S. in terms of military spending.<\/p>\n

The U.S. budgeted $849.77 billion<\/a> for defense during the 2025 fiscal year. But estimates from non-profit USAFacts indicate the U.S. ended up spending about $919.2 billion during that time, up 2% from the prior year<\/a> and accounting for 13% of the federal budget. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles DongFeng-5C, which have a global strike range, pass through Tian’anmen Square during the V-Day military parade on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China. China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images BEIJING \u2014 China plans to increase its defense spending by 7% this year, the slowest rise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[247,700,6833,4788,9796,479],"class_list":{"0":"post-26216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-boost","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-pace","12":"tag-slowest","13":"tag-spending"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}