Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the Fifth Session of the 11th National People's Congress, told the foreign media at a press on March 4 that their longtime excessive attention to and over-interpretation of China's military budget is totally useless and unnecessary.

China will increase its military spending by more than 11 percent this year to about 670 billion yuan, Li Zhaoxing unveiled at the press.

In fact, foreign media's interpretation of China's military spending often runs counter to actual facts. China has set up strict procedures and principles for planning, using, and managing its military spending.

China's military spending completely depends on its defense needs and development strategies. The country plans its military budget strictly according to the principles of fulfilling needs, setting priorities straight, and achieving orderly growth.

Military spending should meet a country's needs, which is the first principle China should follow. A country's defense and military needs are determined by its security environment, the trend of military modernization, new military tasks under new circumstances, and the material and cultural needs of soldiers and officers.

China is facing increasingly complex security challenges. Certain countries are busy building up alliance with China's neighbors to contain the country's rise. Some of them have shamelessly intervened in China's maritime territorial disputes with neighboring countries, in hopes of complicating and exacerbating the disputes. Certain domestic and international separatist forces have carried out terror attacks in China to undermine the country's peace and stability.

Furthermore, non-traditional security issues such as energy security and the security needs of strategic arteries have become more serious in recent years. The frequency and scope of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, and earthquakes have also increased, and the country is playing a growing role in maintaining world peace. The increasingly complex security situation has made China's military tasks increasingly difficult.

The second principle is the order of priorities. Currently, improving the information-based equipment, strengthening the construction of the human resources and raising the informationization level are the major points of China's military construction. Secondly, strengthening the joint training of the land force, navy and air force under various conditions and improving the capacity of joint operations are an important task faced by China's armed forces. Thirdly, improving the living and working conditions of some military units stationed in harsh border areas or economically-backward areas is an urgent task faced by China's armed forces. Fourth, providing supports for China's armed forces to fulfill overseas missions and other international peacekeeping activities is also a key point of China's national defense budget.

The third principle is that the growth rate should be proper. Maintaining a proper growth rate of the national defense budget is the fundamental guarantee for China's armed forces to realize the goal of modernization. Starting from 2008 when the international financial crisis broke out, China's annual average GDP growth rate was 14.5 percent, annual average growth rate of the national financial budget was 20.3 percent, but annual average growth rate of the national defense budget was 13 percent. The percentage of the national defense budget accounting for the GDP and national financial budget had decreased from 1.33 percent and 6.68 percent of 2008 to 1.28 percent and 5.53 percent of 2011. Global strategic research organizations generally believe that the modernization level of China's armed forces is between 20 and 30 years lower than that of developed countries. Therefore, the national defense construction task faced by China is very heavy.

One thing that we must clearly point out is that China firmly adheres to the peaceful development policy. China's military expending is to improve the country's self-defense capacity but not aimed at the military expansion or invading other countries.

Some foreign research organizations not only turn blind eyes to the 5,000-year peaceful development history of China and the complex security environment faced by China, but also criticize the growth of China's military expenditure, and even distort China's normal military modernization goal.

China's military modernization is normal and right. China has no secret scheme.