China defends military expenditure as key to Asia stability, prosperity

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China's defensive military policies have played a core role in maintaining peace and stability in Asia, a spokesperson for the annual session of China's national legislature said here Monday.

"China's peaceful foreign policies and its defensive military policies are conducive to security and peace of Asia," Fu Ying, spokesperson for the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), told a press conference.

"It's not good news to the world that a country as large as China is unable to protect itself," she said.

Fu made the comments in response to a question about China's defense budget in 2013, but she broke with past tradition of revealing the figure at the press conference, which is held one day before NPC's annual session.

Compared with many other parts of the world, Asia has been largely peaceful after the end of the Cold War, which created a favorable environment for development, the spokesperson said.

"That is why Asia is so attractive now," she added.