When China announced its draft budget this week, its defence expenditure target revealed little about how much the country would really be spending on the People’s Liberation Army.

The official defence budget will increase by 7.2 per cent this year. Experts believe, however, that the figure masks a much bigger boost for military capabilities as leader Xi Jinping seeks to transform the PLA into a more potent force while lowering the cost of weapons acquisition as China’s economic slowdown bites.

“Xi has been talking about the need to accelerate defence modernisation and pushing for reforms that enable the economy to support a wartime footing. That requires more rather than less resources,” said Tai Ming Cheung, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Co-operation at the University of California San Diego.