BEIJING – China on Sunday announced an 11.2 percent rise in its 2012 defense budget, the latest double-digit hike in recent years. For the first time, the defense budget will top $100 billion, and international experts believe the figures omit such big-ticket spending as its space program.

Although the increase is not as large as last year’s, it is enough to provoke anxiety at a time when the United States is shifting military resources to the Asia-Pacific region.

The budget was announced on the eve of the opening session of the National People’s Congress, China’s equivalent of a legislature. On Sunday, Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for the Congress, announced the $110 billion budget, while stating that the spending “constitutes no threat to other countries.”

In comparison, the U.S. Congress has approved $662 billion in Pentagon spending for next year, $43 billion lower than this year’s budget.

China in 2011 unveiled an aircraft carrier it is developing and did a test flight of a prototype of a stealth fighter jet.

China “continues to challenge the United States and our partners in the region in the maritime, cyber and space domains,” Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

 

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