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.