China will maintain "a reasonable and appropriate growth rate" for defense spending this year, a top government spokesman said Monday ahead of the release of the country's defense budget — a closely watched indicator of Beijing's strategic intentions.
Zhang Yesui, the spokesman for the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, the country's rubber-stamp national legislature, said China's "limited defense spending," which he said is aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, "poses no threat to any other country," the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
"China maintains a reasonable and appropriate growth rate in its defense expenditure to meet its demand in safeguarding national security and military reform with Chinese characteristics," Zhang Yesui, a former ambassador to Washington, said.