A prominent Chinese military economist has called for a steep rise in the country’s defence spending, an appeal likely to reinforce US concerns about the pace of China’s military expansion just ahead of a visit by Robert Gates, US defence secretary, to Beijing.

Major General Jiang Luming, head of the Institute for Defence Economics at China’s National Defence University, said in an article on Wednesday that China needed to increase its military spending from the current level of 1.4 per cent of its gross domestic product to up to 2.8 per cent, in order to close the gap with military technology in developed countries.

His appeal – which appeared in Study Times, the newspaper of the Communist party’s Central Party School – is part of intense lobbying efforts in readiness for the final draft of Beijing’s next five-year plan, which will determine funding for many departments and industries through to 2015. The military is pushing for a sustained effort to build China’s indigenous military industrial complex. The call for a spending rise will further fuel concerns in the US, the only global military power, and several of China’s neighbours, over a more assertive military stance from Beijing.