Tanks and spend

8 March 2012 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

Security tensions are building in Asia, and a 11 percent budget boost for the People’s Liberation Army won’t help. China’s rise has been peaceful because its leaders have balanced the people, the Party and the PLA. The triangle still holds, but it is getting wobbly.

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China announced an 11.2 percent increase in its military budget for 2012. Spending would be around 670 billion yuan ($106 billion), according to Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for the Chinese national parliament that began its annual meeting on March 5.
Military spending has grown at an annual 13 percent over the past three years, compared to 20 percent growth in overall fiscal spending, according to an analysis in China Daily, a state-owned newspaper.
A report by the U.S. Department of Defence in August estimated that China spent $160 billion on the military in 2010, compared with an official budget of $92 billion.

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