China says defense spending pace to slow, to improve intelligence

BEIJING China will increase military spending by 7.6 percent this year to 954.35 billion yuan ($146.67 billion), the government announced on Saturday.


Last year, defense spending was budgeted to rise 10.1 percent to 886.9 billion yuan.


On Friday, the spokeswoman for China's parliament said the 2016 rise would be about 7 to 8 percent.


($1 = 6.5066 Chinese yuan renminbi)


(Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)




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