No Significant Growth in China's Defense Expenditures: Spokesman

China's defense expenditures will not increase significantly if no incidents that seriously threaten national sovereignty or security take place, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tuesday.

Zhu Bangzao made the remarks at a regular press conference when asked to comment on the increase in China's budget for national defense.

Though the defense budget for year 2000, which stands at 120.5 billion RMB, is a bit higher than that of last year, China is still among the countries with the lowest per capita defense expenditures, he said.

The proportion of defense expenditures against China's GDP and national financial expenditures has actually dropped, despite the continual growth in the sum of defense budget since the 1980s, he added.

Current budget is yet to satisfy the financial need for defense construction and army building in China, he said. "The construction of national defense in China subordinates the economic construction in the country, which is a long-term policy," he said, adding that the increase will mainly contribute to the salary of the servicemen, their medical care and housing benefit, and the living cost of troops stationed in Macao.

Moreover, the central government also allocated 5.6 billion RMB to the army to compensate for its loss as it is no longer entitled to own companies, he said.

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