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BEIJING : China announced Tuesday its defence spending would rise 17.6 percent this year but insisted the increase was moderate, after the United States expressed concerns about Beijing's expanding military power.
Military spending in 2008 will reach 417.8 billion yuan (57.2 billion dollars at the end-2007 exchange rate), a spokesman for China's parliament told reporters ahead of the legislature's annual session beginning Wednesday.
As Jiang Enzhu announced the figures, he also renewed a warning to long-time rival Taiwan that its plans for a referendum next month on United Nations membership was putting an already uneasy peace between the two sides at further risk.
Nevertheless, Jiang said the budget rise, following a similar jump in 2007, was moderate, with the spending coming off a low base and helping to boost soldiers' incomes as well as beef up the military's high-tech capabilities.
"In recent years the Chinese government has moderately increased its spending on national defence on the basis of sustained, steady and fast economic growth and rapid build-up of government revenues," Jiang said.
"These increases were of a compensatory nature to make up for the weak defence foundation."
Jiang said China's military spending was just 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product last year, compared with 4.6 percent in the United States and three percent in Britain.
And although Jiang did not highlight it, China's official budget for 2008 remained about 10 times less than the nearly 600 billion dollars US President George W. Bush proposed for US defence and military spending this year.
Still, on Monday the Pentagon expressed concern about China's growing military might, saying a lack of transparency posed risks to regional and international stability.
The Pentagon said in an annual report that China's military spending in 2007 was between 97 and 139 billion dollars, well in excess of Beijing's official budgeted figure of 45 billion dollars.
In an immediate reaction to the announcement in Beijing, Japan also said the international community remained concerned about a lack of transparency in China's military.
The Pentagon further raised concerns over China's development of cruise and ballistic missiles, its testing of an anti-satellite weapon last year and an apparent rise in cyber-espionage emanating from the Asian nation.
"China's expanding and improving military capabilities are changing East Asian military balances; improvements in China's strategic capabilities have implications beyond the Asia-Pacific region," the Pentagon report said.
The US deputy assistant defence secretary for East Asian affairs, David Sedney, said US officials did not know what China's true aims were in the military sphere.
"I think the biggest thing for people to be concerned about, really, is the fact that we don't have that kind of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions," Sedney said.
"And that leads to uncertainty."
The Pentagon report warned that although the situation in the Taiwan Strait remained stable, the balance of military power was continuing to shift in China's favour.
Jiang did not respond directly to questions about how much of China's military budget was focused on Taiwan, but he warned the island it would pay a "heavy price" if its referendum on joining the UN was endorsed by the public.
"We will make well our preparations and firmly curb the dangerous activities of Taiwan independence forces," Jiang said.
China and Taiwan split following the end of a civil war in 1949 and Beijing insists the two sides must eventually reunify, by force if necessary.
China's parliament, the National People's Congress, will formally endorse the 2008 military budget during its annual session, which will last until March 18.
- AFP/so/ir
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