China's president Xi increases military budget ahead of ruler-for-life vote

China is to increase military spending by 8.1 percent this year as the world's biggest army expands its global reach and continues to modernise.

Beijing's defence budget is the largest in three years and comes as the Asian giant becomes increasingly assertive under president Xi Jinping.

The Chinese leader is set to clear the way for him to rule for life at the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp parliament, which meets this week.

The increase of China's defence budget to 1.1 trillion yuan (£125 billion) was announced on the opening day of the political gathering on Monday.

It compares with a seven percent increase last year and 7.6 percent in 2016, which marked the first time in six years that spending growth had not risen into double figures.

 Source : Yahoo