Increased defense expenditure used for living improvement: white paper

The increased part of China's defense expenditure has primarily been used for purposes including the increase of salaries and allowances of military personnel to ensure the improvement of their living standards, says a white paper titled China's Endeavors for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.

The Chinese Government has always adhered to the principle of strict control, strict management and strict supervision of defense expenditure and has established a full-fledged management and legal system, says the white paper, issued by the Information Office of the State Council on Thursday.

China has moderately increased its defense expenditure in recent years, but the increase was relatively small, says the white paper. The increased part of the defense expenditure has primarily been used for the following purposes:

1. Increase of the salaries and allowances of the military personnel to ensure the improvement of their living standards in step with the socioeconomic development;

2. Further improvement of the social insurance system for servicemen, including the establishment of systems like casualty insurance, medical insurance for ex-servicemen, housing subsidy, basic life guarantee for accompanying spouses of servicemen and social insurance subsidy;

3. Support for the structural and organizational reform of the military and proper resettlement of the 200,000 servicemen recently discharged from active service;

4. Increased investment in the development of high-caliber talents in the military, and refined incentive mechanism for talented people to ensure the achievement of the PLA's Strategic Project for Talented People; and

5. Moderate increase of equipment expenses to improve the PLA's defensive combating capability under the conditions of modern technology, particularly high technology.

Source: Xinhua