Under Xi Jinping, China is focusing on massive military strength

Beijing, March 5: China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has accelerated the pace for the modernisation of the forces and the momentum is particularly high under the presidency of Xi Jinping.

According to a report in CNN, Xi has flagged off a massive internal streamlining of the PLA and bringing it firmly under his control. On Tuesday, March 5, the Chinese government unveiled a rise in its military spending of 7.5 per cent at its annual "Two Sessions" legislative meeting in Beijing, which was a slight fall on the last year's rise in spending.

According to the experts, the slight drop was likely to avoid the perception in China that its military expenditure far exceeded its overall economic growth, which is set to clock no more than 6.5 per cent this year.

Another reason of this increase could be the growing rivalry with the US. Though it's one of the world's top-funded armed forces, China's budget is still much low compared to the US. Last December, US President Donald Trump gave his nod to increase his country's defence budget funding to $750 billion this year.

Though the American Navy is still by far the biggest, the Chinese have also taken to give the Americans a competition now by making new vessels and effecting technological progress, CNN cited Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute, as saying.

"No one has presided over this level of Chinese military development in Chinese history before Xi Jinping," he said.