China’s government has doubled the amount it spends on diplomacy during the five years of President Xi Jinping’s rule, with another hefty increase announced this week aimed at projecting its soft power throughout the world.
The budget, presented on Monday, forecast that Rmb60bn ($9.5bn) would be spent on foreign affairs this year, a 15 per cent increase on last year and up from Rmb30bn in 2011, the year before Mr Xi assumed power.
The doubling of expenditure on foreign affairs under Mr Xi has tracked a revolution in Chinese external policy, with Beijing becoming increasingly assertive throughout the world.
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