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Article: Taiwan: China Boosts Military Spending
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- March 11, 2008
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China's sharp increase in military spending this year will shift the military balance against Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense official said Tuesday.
Last week China said its 2008 military spending would jump 17.6 percent over the 2007 figure to $59 billion.
But in Taipei, Col. Gong Chien-hua _ an intelligence expert in the deputy chief of staff's office _ told reporters that Taiwan believes China's defense spending in 2008 will actually range from $110 billion to $170 billion.
That is as much as 22 percent higher than Taiwan's estimate for China's 2007 military spending.
Taiwan's annual defense budget is far less than China's, totaling about $10 billion last year. But ...