Beijing (AFP) – China announced a seven percent boost to its defence budget for 2026 on Thursday as it steadily increases spending to counter the United States and enforce its claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The latest rise keeps China’s spending at a third of that of the United States, but the Asian power is working to close the gap.

Beijing plans to spend 1.9096 trillion yuan ($276.8 billion) on defence, according to a report published at the opening of the annual “Two Sessions” parliamentary meeting.

Premier Li Qiang told delegates that China will aim to strengthen the military and “carry out major defence-related projects” over the next five years.

Analysts said the budget will finance military salary increases, training, manoeuvres around Taiwan, cyberwarfare capabilities and advanced equipment purchases, among other things, according to the report.

The increase marks a degree of continuity as Beijing pursues a sweeping anti-graft purge of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which included the ousting of top general Zhang Youxia in January.

“China pursues an independent and self-reliant foreign policy. However, without robust military capabilities and technological prowess, our diplomatic stance would inevitably be subject to coercion or even dictated by certain nations, including the United States,” military commentator Song Zhongping, a former Chinese army instructor, told AFP.

“China is unwilling to be a vassal state,” said Song, who maintained that, by comparison, Japan and South Korea “only submit to American dictates”.

The PLA must also strengthen its capabilities, he said, to “fully restore” Chinese jurisdiction over the disputed Spratly Islands, a chain of reefs and atolls in the South China Sea that are also claimed by the Philippines and where there are believed to be vast natural resources.

The United States is the world’s biggest military spender, shelling out $997 billion in 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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