Beijing will accelerate development of \u201cadvanced combat capabilities\u201d, says Premier Li Qiang
\n beijing
\nChina will boost defence spending by 7% in 2026, it said on Thursday, the lowest rate in five years but still outpacing wider economic growth targets and the rest of Asia at a time of growing regional tension, including over Taiwan.
\nSecurity analysts and regional military attaches are watching China\u2019s budget closely as it scrambles to modernise the military by 2035, while stepping up deployments across East Asia and purging the top brass to tackle graft.
\nChina will improve combat readiness and accelerate the development of \u201cadvanced combat capabilities\u201d, Premier Li Qiang said at the opening of parliament\u2019s annual meeting, at which he unveiled a broader GDP growth forecast of 4.5% to 5%.
\n\u201cAll these steps will boost our strategic capacity to safeguard China\u2019s sovereignty, security, and development interests,\u201d Li said in his work report, adding that President Xi Jinping held ultimate command responsibility.
\nThe figure of 7%, which follows three years of annual rises of 7.2% and is the lowest since 6.8% in 2021, is part of a spending campaign in which China\u2019s military has developed new advanced missiles, ships, submarines and surveillance methods.
\nThis year\u2019s increase showed Beijing was keeping to a long-held principle of balancing economic growth with national defence goals, said James Char of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
\n\u201cEssentially, the People\u2019s Liberation Army budget has been growing at a fairly consistent rate as a percentage of GDP … roughly the rate of GDP growth plus inflation,\u201d added Char, a China defence scholar.
\nIt comes amid the highest-profile purge of upper military ranks in decades, with the two most senior generals ensnared in disciplinary investigations.
\nZhang Youxia, a veteran military ally of Xi, was placed under investigation in January, while another, He Weidong, was expelled in October last year.
\nThe purge leaves just two members of the usual seven on the supreme Central Military Commission, Xi himself as its chair, and a newly promoted vice chairman, Zhang Shengmin.
\nThe corruption crackdown showed \u201cBeijing will keep a tighter watch on military spending,\u201d said Wen-Ti Sung, a security analyst based in Taiwan, although it was clear all levels of government were getting more frugal.
\nThe government remains committed to the ruling Communist Party\u2019s \u201cabsolute leadership over the armed forces\u201d, Li added.
\n\u201cGuided by the principle of ensuring political loyalty in the military, we will continue to improve military political conduct and make major strides towards the centenary goals of the People\u2019s Liberation Army.\u201d
\nSome regional analysts believe the founding anniversary, which falls next year will bring further increases in military drills and deployments around Taiwan, the democratically-governed island that Beijing views as its territory.
\n\u2018Reunification with Taiwan\u2019
\nChina would \u201cresolutely fight against separatist forces aimed at \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 and oppose external interference\u201d, Li vowed, virtually reprising comments of last year.
\nThat would \u201cpromote the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and advance the cause of national reunification\u201d, he added.
\nTaiwan says only the island\u2019s people can decide their future. Its government said it did not see any major policy changes towards Taiwan in Li\u2019s comments, but was concerned about China\u2019s defence spending.
\n\u201cEven under conditions of an unstable economy and weak private consumption, they are still willing to allocate a very large budget to military spending,\u201d said Liang Wen-chieh, a spokesperson of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei.
\n\u201cAnd of course, that poses a threat to Taiwan,\u201d the spokesperson told reporters.
\nInternational environment
\nLi toned down a warning about the international environment from a year ago, calling it \u201ccomplex and challenging\u201d rather than \u201cincreasingly complex and severe\u201d in comments that had cited \u201cchanges unseen in a century\u201d.
\nIn Tokyo, Japan\u2019s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said China was not sufficiently transparent about its continued high level of defence spending and stronger capabilities.
\nDespite China\u2019s efforts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas by \u201cforce or coercion\u201d, Japan would keep up efforts to build constructive, stable ties with it, Kihara told a press briefing.
\nWhile the graft crackdown left gaps in the PLA\u2019s command structure and dented short-term readiness, it was expected to keep improving capabilities and broaden modernisation, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said.
\nGrowth in Chinese military spending was consistently outpacing the rest of Asia amid a global surge in defence budgets, the London-based IISS said in a report last month.
\nChina\u2019s share of Asia\u2019s total military expenditure grew to almost 44% in 2025, up from an average of 37% between 2010 and 2020, it added.
\nChina gives no breakdown of defence spending, though its budget of 1.91 trillion yuan ($277 billion) is just about a quarter of a $1-trillion defence bill US President Donald Trump signed into law in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing will accelerate development of \u201cadvanced combat capabilities\u201d, says Premier Li Qiang beijing China will boost defence spending by 7% in 2026, it said on Thursday, the lowest rate in five years but still outpacing wider economic growth targets and the rest of Asia at a time of growing regional tension, including over Taiwan. Security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-535045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n