BEIJING, China: China announced on Saturday a 7.1-percent increase in its defense budget for 2022 to $229 billion, continuing years of robust spending on its increasingly powerful military that is challenging the United States armed forces' dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Asian superpower has the world's second-largest defense outlay after the US, allowing it to maintain the largest standing military, with 3 million personnel and an arsenal of advanced weaponry, including two aircraft carriers with more on the way, stealth fighters, an advanced missile force and nuclear-powered submarines.