China announced a 7.1% hike in its DEFENCE spending as well as an annual GDP Growth target of around 5.5% for the coming year.
Chinas Premier and second-ranked leader Li Keqiang announced the GDP target at the opening of the week-long session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) or Parliament,
which approves policies for the coming year.A draft budget, which the NPC will approve, said defence spending would be hiked by 7.1% to 1.45 trillion Yuan or around $ 230 billion. The military budget was hiked by 6.8% last year when it crossed the $200 billion mark for the first time. Indias military
spending this year was announced as around $70 billion, a 4.4% hike from the previous year, although a greater share of Indias defence spending goes towards imports and pensions.