National People's Congress (NPC) spokeswoman Fu Ying announced at a press conference on March 4, 2016, that China's defence budget this year will rise by about seven to eight percent compared with 2015. She said that the actual figure would be released on March 5, 2016, when the annual session of China's version of parliament opens. Last year, defense spending was budgeted to rise 10.1 percent to 886.9 billion yuan ($135.39 billion).