China's military budget is expected to rise 17.6 percent this year compared to 2007, a spokesman of the country's top legislative body said in Beijing today.

The planned military spending for 2008 was 417.7 billion yuan (US$58.76 billion), an increase of 62.4 billion yuan over last year, Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress told a news conference this morning.

The congress, which will approve China's annual budget, will open tomorrow for its annual two-week session.

Most of the increase will go to boosting soldiers' salaries while some will be used for new armaments to improve the military's ability in the information era, Jiang said.

Military spending has risen in the past few years, but Jiang described it as a "supplementary increase" to improve the country's weak defense ability.

The nation's allocation for the People's Liberation Army dropped 5.8 percent annually from 1979 to 1989, Jiang said, adding that even the double-digit military rise these years was much lower than the rise in fiscal revenue.

The average military budget increase was 15.8 percent from 2003 to 2007 while fiscal revenue increased an average of 22.1 percent during the same period, Jiang said.

He also said that spending on defense was still much lower compared to other countries.

Military spending accounted for 16.6 percent of the fiscal budget of the United States last year. It was 6.9 percent in Britain, 13.5 percent for France, 15.1 percent for Russia and 14.4 percent for India, Jiang said.

China's military spending took up 7.2 percent of the country's fiscal budget last year, Jiang said.

China will continue to adhere to a path of peaceful development, but at the same time will modernize its forces with new ships, missiles and fighter planes for self-defense purposes.

"China's limited armed forces are totally for the purpose of safeguarding independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. China will not pose a threat to any country," Jiang said.

(Shanghai Daily, March 4, 2008)