{"id":3077,"date":"2026-03-05T01:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/china-to-reportedly-boost-defense-spending-by-7-slowest-pace-since-2021\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T01:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:55:20","slug":"china-to-reportedly-boost-defense-spending-by-7-slowest-pace-since-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/china-to-reportedly-boost-defense-spending-by-7-slowest-pace-since-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"China to reportedly boost defense spending by 7%, slowest pace since 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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China’s liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles DongFeng-5C, which have a global strike range, pass through Tian’anmen Square during the V-Day military parade on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China.<\/p>\n

China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BEIJING \u2014 China plans to increase its defense spending by 7% this year, Reuters reported Thursday, citing official documents due for public release later in the day.<\/p>\n

That would mark the slowest increase in its annual military expenditure since 2021.<\/p>\n

The proposal comes as conflict in the Middle East has escalated, amid a broader rise in geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n

For the last three years, China has budgeted a 7.2% annual increase in defense spending. Beijing had increased spending by\u00a07.1% in 2022\u00a0and 6.8% in 2021, according to official data.<\/p>\n

According to a government work report released Thursday, Beijing will speed up the development of advanced combat capabilities, as well as the “high-quality” modernization of its national defense and armed forces.<\/p>\n

The working report also highlighted China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which was commissioned in November 2025. Some of China’s latest weapon systems, including long-range missiles, were displayed during a military parade in September.<\/p>\n

China is set to kick off its 8-day National People’s Congress on Thursday, an annual parliamentary meeting that officially approves the budget and development goals for the year.<\/p>\n

Last year, China proposed a national defense budget of 1.78 trillion yuan ($244.99 billion at the time). However, analysts believe the official figures are understated and exclude significant “off-budget” items. <\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2025 report to Congress on China’s military, Beijing spent between $304 billion and $377 billion on defense in 2024 \u2014 about 32% to 63% higher than its officially announced budget of $231 billion.<\/p>\n

Beijing accounted for nearly 44% of Asia’s defense spending in 2025, up from 39% in 2017, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n

China is also second to the U.S. in terms of military spending.<\/p>\n

The U.S. budgeted $849.77 billion for defense during the 2025 fiscal year. But estimates from non-profit USAFacts indicate the U.S. ended up spending about $919.2 billion during that time, up 2% from the prior year and accounting for 13% of the federal budget. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missiles DongFeng-5C, which have a global strike range, pass through Tian’anmen Square during the V-Day military parade on September 3, 2025 in Beijing, China. China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images BEIJING \u2014 China plans to increase its defense spending by 7% this year, Reuters reported Thursday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1587,247,2942,906,1660,1304,419],"class_list":["post-3077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-boost","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-pace","tag-reportedly","tag-slowest","tag-spending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}