The press conference on the fifth session of China's 12th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2017. The fifth session of the 12th NPC is scheduled to open in Beijing on March 5. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

 
China will raise its defense budget by around 7 percent this year, making it the smallest military budget increase in recent years, said a spokesman for the National People's Congress (NPC) on Saturday in Beijing. 

Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the annual congress, said military spending is budgeted to grow by around 7 percent in 2017, which accounts for around 1.3 percent of China’s GDP.

China increased its military spending by 7.6 percent in 2016, 10.1 percent in 2015, 12.2 percent in 2014 and 10.7 percent in 2013. 

The 954.35 billion yuan ($146.67 billion) military budget for 2016 was around a quarter of the US’ $573 billion defense budget that year. 

China's economy expanded 6.7 percent year on year in 2016, the slowest in a quarter century.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is seeking to transform the People's Liberation Army into a modern force, vowing to cut 300,000 jobs and revamping its Soviet-style command structure. 

The current military reform aims to transform the PLA into a more maritime-oriented force and away from its traditional army-heavy continental defense structure. 

Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Saturday that the slowdown in military budget increase shows China’s budget is already very large and any small increase amounts to a big boost to the country’s military reforms. 

“As China aims to cut 300,000 jobs by the end of 2017, some personnel and maintenance fees can be saved so that the money can be used to establish other arms of the military. From this perspective, a 7 percent increase is sufficient,” Song said.