Beijing: China increases military spending by 7.2 percent. Tensions over Taiwan have increased sharply in recent years, and China continues to invest in its military.
This means that the military budget is expected to grow faster than the Chinese economy as a whole. Despite considerable economic difficulties, China has set itself an ambitious growth target of “around five” percent for the current year. The People's Republic maintains the largest army in the world in terms of an estimated two million active soldiers.