China's defense budget for 2006 will rise 14.7 percent to 280.729 billion yuan (more than US$35 billion), a budget report distributed in Beijing Sunday.
The rise marks an increase of 36.025 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion) from that of last year.
The increase of the budget is to strengthen the army's capability to fight against a defensive war and to respond to emergencies, and to raise soldiers' pay, said the report submitted to the Fourth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC) , China's top legislature.
This year's defense budget accounts for 7.4 percent of the budgeted fiscal expenditure, compared with 7.74 percent in 2003, 7. 72 percent in 2004 and 7.34 percent in 2005, said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the annual session of the Chinese parliament, on Saturday.
China's military spending remains at a low level compared with some other countries, such as the United States, Britain, Japan and France, Jiang said when answering questions from reporters at Saturday's press conference ahead of the NPC's annual session, which opens at 9:00 a.m. Sunday.