China raises defense budget 7.2% as it pushes for global heft and regional tensions continue

BEIJING (AP) — China is increasing its defense budget 7.2% this year in a similar increase to last year’s. It’s already the world’s second-highest behind the United States at $222 billion. Tensions with the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and neighbors who share claims to the crucial South China Sea are seen as furthering growth in increasingly high-tech military technologies from stealth fighters to aircraft carriers and a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons. The official budget figure announced Tuesday is considered by many foreign experts to be only a fraction of spending by the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party, when spending on research and development and foreign weapons purchases are considered.