On March 4, a Xinhua reporter interviewed Major General Chen Zhou, a delegate to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and a researcher at the Academy of Military Science. In the interview, Chen stated that "strong material support is indispensable in achieving the Communist Party’s goal of having a strong army in the new situation.”
Chen also asked, "How much are the needs for national security and how much will our defense spending be? Wherever our national interests extend, that is where our defense investment will follow. This is the principle that investment in national defense must follow."
According to the Second Session of the NPC Meeting spokeswoman, Fu Ying, the draft budget proposal for 2015 indicated there was an increase of about 10 percent over the previous year.
Source: Xinhua, March 4, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015lh/2015-03/04/c_1114523378.htm