The hike is only a slight raise from the 6.6% increase announced in 2020 amid the pandemic, which was the lowest increase in many years.
China’s defence budget will for the first time cross $200 billion with the government on Friday announcing a 6.8% hike in defence spending for 2021.
The announcement was made at the start of the week-long session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Communist Party-controlled legislature, in Beijing.
The hike is only a slight raise from the 6.6% increase announced in 2020 amid the pandemic, which was the lowest increase in many years. The defence budget saw double-digit increases until 2015, and was hiked 7.5% in 2019.
The budget for 2021 was announced as 1.35 trillion yuan ($209 billion), up from 1.27 trillion Yuan ($179 billion) last year. This will take China’s defence spending to more than four times India’s $49.75 billion budget, not including pensions. India’s budget last month announced a modest 1.48% hike in total…