China to spend 7% more on defence amid a widening graft purge in the military

BEIJING - China has set a 7 per cent hike in defence spending for 2026, as the country seeks to modernise its military at a steady pace despite an economic slowdown and an unprecedented corruption purge of the senior military ranks.

The hike is in line with similar increases of about 7 per cent over the past five years. It had dipped below 10 per cent for the first time in 2016, after an average increase of about 15 per cent in the previous two decades.

China’s 2026 official defence budget of 1.909 trillion yuan (S$354 billion) was disclosed in the Chinese government’s budget estimates issued on March 5, at the opening of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) or Parliament.

China’s top leaders are gathering in Beijing this week as part of the country’s biggest political event of the year, known as the Two Sessions.

The defence budget is closely watched as the gap between China’s military strength and those of other countries in the region continues to widen. Its modernisation efforts show little sign of slowing down even amid the unprecedented corruption purge among the military’s top brass.

The Central Military Commission (CMC), which oversees China’s armed forces, has been reduced from an original seven to just two members: the chairman, President Xi Jinping, and vice-chairman, General Zhang Shengmin.

A recent study by the Washington-headquartered Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank showed that 36 generals and lieutenant-generals in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been officially purged since 2022.

The effect of the anti-graft campaign could be seen at the opening session of the NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, where no uniformed representatives sat in the first two rows on stage, reserved for China’s top leaders.

CMC vice-chairman Zhang sat at another section behind Mr Xi.

At the 2025 opening session, top generals Zhang Youxia and He Weidong – who were both CMC vice-chairmen – sat in the same row as Mr Xi.

General Zhang came under investigation in January 2026, while General He was expelled from the military and party in October 2025.

China aims to have a world-class fighting force by 2050, although Western analysts have focused on what they see as Beijing’s preparations to become capable of military action against Taiwan by 2027 – the 100th year of the founding of the PLA.

A front-page article of the PLA Daily on March 4 said that military delegates attending the Two Sessions recognise that achieving the centenary goal of military modernisation “has entered the most critical and demanding phase”, adding that it was imperative to “strengthen political guidance and continuously deepen political rectification”.

A slowing economy could exert pressure on military expenditure, which analysts say could be higher than the official figure, as it does not include items such as research and development and paramilitary forces.

China has set its economic growth target at a range of 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent for 2026 – the first lowering in three years, from a target of around 5 per cent from 2023 to 2025.

Still, the PLA has been steadily rolling out hardware upgrades, notably at a major military parade in September 2025, such as long-range missiles and drones. China commissioned its latest high-tech aircraft carrier, the Fujian, in November 2025.

A February 2026 report on global defence spending by the London-headquartered International Institute for Strategic Studies said that China remains the major driver of defence spending in Asia.

This resulted not only from China’s own expanding defence budget, but also from the “concern among its neighbours over Beijing’s strategic intentions”.

China’s share of regional defence spending grew to almost 44 per cent in 2025, up from 39 per cent in 2017, the report added.

Dr Yang Zi, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore who focuses on the Chinese military, said he expects the annual defence budget growth to continue outpacing China’s gross domestic product growth by a small margin.

He told The Straits Times that a 0.2 percentage point decline in defence budget growth in 2026 compared with 2025 could reflect an adjustment to China’s declining economic growth.

But he expects the widening corruption purges to affect operational readiness more than the slowing down of the PLA’s hardware modernisation drive.

He noted that it is not just China’s top generals who have been ensnared, but also operational-level commanders.

For instance, Major-General Ding Laifu, the current commander of the 73rd Group Army based in Fujian province close to Taiwan, lost his NPC seat on Feb 26.

“How can a country fight a war without its top commanders?” asked Dr Yang.