China Plans To Boost Defense Budget by 19.4%

China's military will boost its 2008 defense budget by a record 19.4%, upgrading the world's largest regular army's technology and resources to rival Japan, America, and Taiwan.

Spending will rise to $58.8 billion from last year's 350 billion yuan, the Chinese legislature's spokesman Jiang Enzhu said yesterday. Mr. Jiang calculated the increase to be 17.6%, or $57.2 billion, using the yuan's end-2007 exchange rate and comparing the 2008 budget with 2007 actual spending. The People's Liberation Army, with 2 million soldiers, had the biggest military expenditure in five years in 2007, going on a spending spree to upgrade a missile force capable of shooting down one of the country's own obsolete satellites. Government spokesman Qin Gang said in March last year the navy would build its first aircraft carrier by 2010 to expand the defense forces' operational range into the South China Sea.

"Our purpose is to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mr. Qin said at a regular news briefing in Beijing yesterday. "It's justifiable for any country to maintain a reasonable level of military power."

China's military is continuing to improve its capacity to conduct long-range missions beyond a confrontation with Taiwan, the Pentagon said yesterday in a report.