CHINA: China is to announce a significant increase in its defence spending during the annual meeting of the 10-day National People's Congress which gets underway in Beijing today.
The Finance Minister, Mr Xiang Huaicheng, is expected to propose a 17.6 per cent increase in the military budget to bring it to $20 billion, a move seen as a direct response to the huge arms package offered by Washington to Taiwan last year and to the $48 billion hike in US defence spending. Part of the money is to be used to upgrade the technologically backward People's Army.
This will be the second consecutive increase in China's defence budget, which rose by 18 per cent last year. The figures do not include arms purchases from Russia - including fighter planes, four Kilo class submarines and Sovremenny destroyers - so the real budget could be up to four times higher.
Other topics that will dominate the conference will be the increasing problem of rural unrest, economic growth in China's first year as a full member of the World Trade Organisation and the problem of corruption.