Paramilitary policemen line up at an army base in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, yesterday. China will boost defence spending by 17.8 per cent in 2007. - Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters):

China will boost defence spending by 17.8 per cent in 2007, accelerating the emerging power's string of annual double-digit rises in money for a modern military that reflects its economic strength.

Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress, said yesterday that the planned budget for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) this year was 350.92 billion yuan, or about US$44.94 billion, an increase of 52.99 billion yuan on 2006.

China's rising military spending since the 1990s followed many years of slimmed budgets and would not threaten other countries, Jiang said.

"In recent years, China has steadily increased defence spending based on its economic development," Jiang told a news briefing. "China has neither the wherewithal nor the intention to enter into an arms race with any country, and China won't constitute a threat to any country."

But his assurances did not comfort Washington, which has repeatedly criticised China's military spending as opaque, and were unlikely to sway neighbouring powers India and Japan, which have been lifting their own defence spending.

Yesterday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, said it was not the budget increase itself that concerned the United States, but the lack of transparency in China over the intentions of its military rise.

"I think the point we would make with respect to military spending and military acquisition of various types would be the point about transparency," he told a news conference in Beijing, adding that Washington was dissatisfied with the level of detail China provides about its military.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, on a recent visit to Asia, said that China's anti-satellite test and military build-up were "not consistent with Beijing's stated goal of a peaceful rise".