China ups military spending by 7.2%, vows to deter Taiwan ‘separatist activities’

China is set to increase its defense spending by 7.2% to 1.67 trillion yuan in 2024, according to a budget report released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, as part of the country’s annual parliamentary meetings in Beijing.

This year’s military budget announcement comes against the backdrop of several generals from the People’s Liberation Army, including the country’s previous Defense Minister Li Shangfu, losing their positions amid President Xi Jinping’s broad anti-corruption probe in the past year.

China’s 2024 military budget expansion follows a 7.2% increase last year, a 7.1% spike in 2022, 6.8% increase in 2021, 6.6% climb in 2020 and 7.5% growth in 2019, according to official data.

China’s official military budget is second only to the United States in the world, though some unofficial estimates suggest the scale of Beijing’s military spending may be larger than officially claimed.

China maintains its claims over self-governed Taiwan and President Xi Jinping regards reunification as a “historical inevitability.” In the government work report also released Tuesday, Beijing vowed to “resolutely oppose separatist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ and external interference.”

From land border skirmishes with India a few years ago to confrontations in the South China Sea with Southeast Asian countries more recently, tensions have heightened between Beijing and its neighbors.

On Tuesday, the Philippines accused China’s coast guard of “dangerous maneuvers” that led to a collision between a Chinese vessel and one of its vessels on its way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.

This is not the first time Chinese vessels have clashed with Philippine vessels on resupply missions to troops stationed on an old warship that Manila grounded more than a decade ago.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled in 2016 that China’s claims over vast portions of the South China Sea have no basis in international law — a ruling that Beijing has rejected.

Beijing has also taken offence at joint exercises and patrols that U.S. and other Western naval powers have conducted with various Asian nations in international waters that Beijing claims as its own.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this story.