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China has announced a 7.2 per cent increase in its defence budget and officially hardened its stance towards the self-governing island of Taiwan.
Military spending by China is already the world's second-highest behind the United States at 1.6 trillion yuan ($341 billion), roughly mirroring last year's rise.
Tensions with the US, Taiwan, Japan and neighbours with competing claims to the crucial South China Sea are seen as furthering growth in high-tech military technologies from stealth fighters to aircraft carriers and a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.
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The official budget figure announced on Tuesday at the opening of the National People's Congress (NPC) annual meeting is considered only a fraction of spending by the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, once spending on research and development and foreign weapons purchases are considered.
"We will provide stronger financial guarantees for efforts to modernise our national defence and the armed forces on all fronts and consolidate and enhance integrated national strategies and strategic capabilities," Premier Li Qiang told the assembly of nearly 3000 carefully selected participants, who show overwhelming loyalty to the Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping.
China's defence budget has more than doubled since 2015, even as the country's economic growth rate has slowed considerably.
The country's continuing ambition is to challenge the US and its allies in Asia including Australia, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines over territorial claims, regional leadership and a bigger say in world affairs.
Its military budget grew by double-digit percentage figures for much of the 2000s but began to slow as the formerly booming economy started to plateau.
In his address, Li put the GDP growth target at five per cent this year, while acknowledging it would be difficult to achieve.
China's economy is dealing with high youth unemployment and a cratering real estate market after developers who took out giant bank loans were unable to pay back their lenders or deliver units to buyers who had spent their life savings to put a roof over their heads.
That hasn't dampened Beijing's global ambitions, however.
Conquest over the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, driving Indian forces from their disputed border and asserting control over islands in the East China and South China Sea are all high on Beijing's list of priorities.
China also officially announced a tougher approach to relations with Taiwan during the NPS meeting, reports Reuters.
A government report dropped the mention of "peaceful reunification" between China and Taiwan.
The document repeated a call for "reunification" with Taiwan, but emphasised that it wants to "be firm" in doing so and dropped the descriptor "peaceful", which had been used in previous reports.
While the US has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it remains the island's main guarantor of security and provider of advanced weaponry.
China sends ships and planes near Taiwan on a daily basis in an attempt to wear down the equipment and morale of the Taiwanese armed forces and underline its threat that the territory must inevitably be united with the mainland, by force if necessary.
– With Associated Press
