China official defence budget — yuan (central government)

## What this measures

The central government's budgeted national defence expenditure (中央本级国防支出) for each year, in billions of yuan, as presented in the Ministry of Finance's budget report to the National People's Congress. This is the headline figure of China's annual defence budget announcement. Each point is dated on the day the report was presented (5 March, except 22 May in 2020), because that is when the number becomes known.

## Why it matters

It is the only defence figure China publishes itself, and the one Beijing uses to frame its military build-up as restrained. Year-on-year growth has been single-digit since 2016. The number is watched by every defence ministry in the region and sets the tone of the annual budget debate.

## How to read it

Higher means a larger announced budget. Compare the growth rate with China's nominal GDP growth to see whether defence is taking a larger share of the economy. For a dollar figure use defense.china.official_budget_usd; for comparison with the US use cn_us_defense_ratio_official.

## What it does not say

This is the official budget, and independent estimates (SIPRI, IISS) put China's actual military spending materially higher because they add items the official budget is understood to leave out. It is the central-government budget; the all-government figure is slightly larger (1.94 trillion yuan against 1.910 trillion for 2026). It is a budget, not what was spent, though recent budget reports show the central defence budget executed at 100%. It does not show what the money buys at Chinese prices.

## Source

Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China, Report on the Execution of the Central and Local Budgets for the previous year and on the Draft Central and Local Budgets for the current year, submitted each year to the National People's Congress (mof.gov.cn; also published by the NPC and state media). The report and year are cited on every observation. Budget reports are official documents of a state organ, excluded from copyright by Article 5 of the PRC Copyright Law; Palanor stores only the figures. Hand-entered each March.