China will boost its defense budget by "around 7 percent" this year, a top official said Saturday, as Beijing seeks to inject more cash into its increasingly modern military amid "outside meddling" in territorial disputes in the East and South China seas.
"Concerning the . . . territorial and maritime disputes in China's neighborhood, we have called for the peaceful settlement through dialogue and consultations," Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for the National People's Congress, said a day before the rubber-stamp parliament's annual session kicks off.
"At the same time, we need the ability to safeguard our interests and rights," she added. "In particular, we need to guard against outside meddling in the disputes."