BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China has reported its 2007 military
expenditures to the United Nations (UN), the second time it has done so since it
started participating in the UN Military Budget Transparency Mechanism last
year.
The report provides more information than the previous submission,
including basic data of the country's military spend for the latest fiscal year.
It also explained the main purpose of the expenditures, Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Jiang Yu said here at a regular news briefing.
This demonstrated again that the Chinese government attached great
importance to the issue of military transparency, and actively improved mutual
trust with other countries in the military field, she added.
Since last year, China has participated in the UN Military Budget
Transparency Mechanism and returned to the Conventional Weapons Registration
System, two major mechanism of the UN concerning military transparency.
The UN Military Budget Transparency Mechanism came into being in 1980 when
the UN General Assembly approved resolution 35/142 entitled "Reduction of
Military Budgets." It introduced the UN system for standardized reporting of
military expenditure.
Currently, more than 110 nations have joined the system.