China is planning to raise its defense budget by 10.7 percent, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday, a slight drop from the 11.2 percent increase in 2012.

China's defense budget is set to rise 10.7 percent to 720.2 billion yuan ($114.3 billion) in 2013, according to a budget report to be reviewed at the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature.

The Agence France-Presse reports:

China's military budgets have risen steadily in recent years along with the country's booming economic growth, and experts say the actual totals are usually substantially higher than the publicly announced figures.

The increases have become a sensitive topic as they come with China taking what some neighbouring countries consider a more assertive military stance on long-simmering territorial disputes.

New military spending will be used to improve living and working conditions of service people, make the armed forces more mechanized and information-based, and safeguard national security, the report says.