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Global

China says 2015 defence budget to rise about 10 percent this year


    BEIJING (Reuters) - China's defence budget this year will rise about 10 percent compared with 2014, the spokeswoman for the country's parliament said on Wednesday.

    Spokeswoman Fu Ying told a news conference that the actual figure would be released on Thursday, when the annual session of China's largely rubber-stamp parliament opens.

    Last year, defence spending rose 12.2 percent to $130 billion (84.66 billion pounds), second only to the United States.

    (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)