China to get $14 billion defense budget boost

China unveiled its plan to increase by 6.8 percent its defense budget in the coming year, according to a Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People’s Republic of China statement issued on Friday March 5.

China’s annual defense budget will maintain single-digit growth for a sixth consecutive year by increasing 6.8 percent in 2021, According to the MND press release issued on 5 March, 

2021 planned defense spending will be about 1.35 trillion yuan (about $209 billion).

At the moment, Beijing’s defense budget is about one-quarter of the U.S. figure, which stands at 740.5 billion U.S. dollars for the 2021 fiscal year.

“As the world’ second-largest economy and the most populous country, China’s planned defense spending per capita in 2021 will be less than 1,000 yuan,” the MND said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that еhe defense spending boost comes after China sparred with India on its border and as the nation seeks to modernize its military to make it more competitive with the U.S.