From SABCnews.com:
China is likely to announce yet another year of double-digit growth in its defence budget in the next week, feeding a modernisation drive that is sparking concern in rival Taiwan of invasion and US worries about stability.
The budget to be revealed by Jin Renqing, the finance minister, during the annual parliament session that opens on Saturday will appear relatively modest – about half that of regional power Japan.
But analysts say the official numbers are an incomplete indicator of the actual scale of resources China is pouring into defence. Many estimate real expenditure is likely to be two to four times what the government says.
