China targets 7.5% increase in 2010 defense spending

China plans to increase its national defense spending by 7.5% to about $76.3 billion in 2010, according to a draft budget report.

These funds will be used mainly to modernize the army, according to the draft submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, which started its annual session on Friday.

NPC spokesman Li Zhaoxing said the new budget would help China "face multi-faceted military threats and improve capabilities for diverse military tasks".

Although the draft document reflects a sharp slowdown in the growth of China's defense budget, many experts believe that the official data for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) vastly understates real expenditure.

The 2008 China Military Power Report, released by the U.S. Congress, said that Beijing spent as much as $139 billion in 2008 on modernizing its military forces. The sum was more than three times China's officially announced defense budget.

China celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding last October with a vast display of the country's military might on Tiananmen Square, featuring 52 new domestically developed types of military equipment.

According to official Chinese data, the PLA currently numbers 2.3 million active personnel deployed in seven military regions and more than 20 military districts, with over 800,000 reserves.

BEIJING, March 5 (RIA Novosti)