Under Xi, China’s defence budget seen defying economic slowdown

President Xi Jinping is expected to authorize robust defense spending for this year despite China’s slowing economy, determined to strengthen the country’s armed capabilities amid growing unease in Beijing at Washington’s renewed focus on Asia. While China keeps the details of its military spending secret, experts said additional funding would likely go toward beefing up the navy with anti-submarine ships and developing more aircraft carriers beyond the sole vessel in operation. Last year, defense spending rose 12.2 percent to $130 billion, second only to the United States. That continued a nearly unbroken two-decade run of double-digit budget increases, although many experts think China’s real defense outlays are much larger.

Xi has put a premium on the ‘dream of a strong military’ as part of his grand strategy for China’s rise, perhaps more than any other modern [Chinese] leader.

Zhang Baohui, security specialist at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University.

China’s leaders have routinely sought to justify the country’s military modernization by linking defense spending to rapid GDP growth. But growth of 7.4 percent last year was the slowest in 24 years, and a further slowdown to around 7 percent is expected in 2015. Troops are rehearsing for a major parade in September where the People’s Liberation Army is expected to unveil new homegrown weapons in the first of a series of public displays of military might planned during Xi’s tenure, sources have told Reuters. Experts said the army would continue strengthening its naval presence in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, a region dominated by the U.S. and its allies, and through which four-fifths of China’s oil imports pass.

Asia-Pacific xi jinping