CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — China is increasing its 2026 defense budget by 7%, bringing the nation’s military expenditure for the coming year to 1.91 trillion yuan, or about $277 billion.
This year’s increase compares to 7.2% rises for the past three years, with Beijing claiming its defense spending “remains comparatively modest across key relative indicators, including its share of gross domestic product, per capita defense expenditure, and defense expenditure per military personnel.”
The budget was announced on March 5, as China’s top leaders convened for the 14th National People’s Congress in Beijing. After once splurging on double-digit percentage growth for many years, China has now reported single-digit increases for the past 11 years as economic realities bit.
State news agency Xinhua cited officials: “China maintains that adjusting defense budgets to meet national security demands is a sovereign right, and is keeping steady and moderate growth in military expenditures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests in a fast-changing world.”
Putting China’s military expenditure in perspective, it is nearly five times that of Japanese spending, and approximately nine times larger than Taiwan’s budget.
The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies calculated that, last year, China’s share of total military expenditure in Asia grew to almost 44%.
It is likely Chinese defense spending is far greater than the $277 billion it declared. The Pentagon’s most recent report on China’s military development, published last December, warned, “There is broad consensus among academic, think-tank and industry experts that China’s publicly announced defense budget does not contain the totality of China’s defense spending.”
The Pentagon gave the example of the 2024 budget, suggesting it was probably 32-63% higher than the figure announced. China does not include defense-related research and development, some capital spending, internal security and mobilization activities, for example.
At a meeting the same day on March 5, the top table reserved for the Central Military Commission (CMC) – the leading body in charge of China’s military apparatus – was manned by just two people. These were President Xi Jinping and vice chairman General Zhang Shengmin. When Xi became chairman in 2012, the CMC had eleven members.
This made stark the ferocious culling of the highest ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Xi’s resurgent anti-corruption campaign. The turbulent purge recently netted two CMC members, Generals Zhang Youxia and He Weidong.
The U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies calculated that Xi has purged 101 senior PLA leaders since 2022. Indicative of the decimation, it said of 47 leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to three-star ranks since then, 41 have been potentially purged.
In light of such detentions, it is little wonder that Zhang ordered the armed forces to “thoroughly implement the system of ultimate responsibility resting with the CMC chairman, improve political rectification and advance campaigns to improve conduct and combat corruption.”
Xi has encouraged the PLA to act more aggressively against Taiwan, with a record 5,709 aircraft sorties in the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone last year.
Gordon Arthur is an Asia correspondent for Defense News. After a 20-year stint working in Hong Kong, he now resides in New Zealand. He has attended military exercises and defense exhibitions in about 20 countries around the Asia-Pacific region.
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