China announced a 7.5-per-cent hike in its annual military budget on Thursday, following international concern over larger increases in recent years, dpa reported.
The draft defence budget for 2010 was set at 532.115 billion yuan (77.9 billion dollars), a rise of 37.116 billion yuan, or 7.5 per cent, from last year, a spokesman for China's nominal parliament told reporters.
The 3,000-member National People's Congress is scheduled to discuss and approve the national budget during its 10-day annual session, which begins on Friday.
"The Chinese government has always paid attention to controlling the military budget ... at a reasonable level to ensure the balance between national defence and economic development," National People's Congress spokesman Li Zhaoxing told reporters.
China jumped to second place in the list of the world's biggest military spenders in 2008, behind only the United States, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported last year.
China's estimated military spending reached 85 billion dollars, one-seventh of the estimated US spending, the institute said.
Western critics bemoan a lack of transparency from China and claim its real military spending is much higher than its budget figure.
Some US analysts estimate China's actual military spending at up to three times the budget figure.
China's official defence budget for 2009 was set at 481 billion yuan (70.2 billion dollars), up 14.9 per cent from 2008.