The military budget of China is the portion of the overall budget of China that is allocated for the funding of the military of China. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new weapons, equipment, and vehicles. Every March, as part of its annual state budget, China releases a single overall figure for national military expenditures. In 2022, the official military budget was announced to be 1.45 trillion yuan (US$230 billion), the second largest in the world behind the US. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, China became the world's fifth largest exporter of major arms in 2014–18, an increase of 2.7 per cent from the period 2010–2014. China supplied major arms to 53 states in 2014–18. Pakistan was the main recipient of these transfers, standing for 37%, whilst the remaining exports were small in volume, but with a wide variety of countries. Official announcements The Chinese government annually announce the budget for the internal security forces and the PLA at the National People's Congress in early March. 2014: the budget was announced to be US$131BN. 2015: the budget was announced to be US$141BN. At the same time, the Chinese government estimated the Chinese economy to grow 7% in 2015. 2016: the budget was announced to be 954.35 billion yuan which is about US$147BN, raised 6-7 % above last year's estimates. 2017: the budget was announced to be 1.044 trillion yuan ($151.4 billion), representing a 7% increase from the last year. 2018: the budget was announced to be 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion), which represents an 8.1% increase. This is China's largest defense budget raise in three years. 2019: the budget was announced to be 1.19 trillion yuan, which is an increase of 7.5%. 2020: the budget was announced to increase by 6.6% this year to 1.27 trillion yuan (US$178 billion). 2021: the budget was announced to be 1.35 trillion yuan (US$209 billion), an increase of 6.8%. 2022: the budget was announced to be 1.45 trillion yuan (US$230 billion), which is an increase of 7.1% over the last year. Unofficial estimates Unofficial estimates place the total amount of military spending for China higher than the Chinese government figures, but these calculations tend to differ between organizations. The last year that many international institutes provided estimates of Chinese military