Click to play videoNew Delhi: Beijing on Sunday announced that China is hiking its defence budget by 17.8 per cent.
The increase means China will spend close to $45 billion on defence this year. This is an increase of $6.79 billion over last year.
The proposal is expected to be passed by the National People's Congress in mid-March.
The annual session of the National People's Congress started on Monday. The extra money is meant for improving living allowances for the armed forces, their training and upgrading military armaments.
Meanwhile, the US has urged China to be more 'transparent' about its ambitious military modernisation, hours after Beijing announced its intention to hike defence budget for this year.
In the past, Chinese officials and experts have said that China has to modernise its military, which had the task to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence, possibly with US support.
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