China ? China will boost military spending by 17.8 percent this year, a spokesman for the national legislature said Sunday, continuing more than a decade of double-digit annual increases that have raised concerns among the United States and China’s neighbors.

John Negroponte, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, urged China to be more open about its military buildup.

“We think it’s important in our dialogue that we understand what China’s plans and intentions are,” said Negroponte, who was visiting Beijing on Sunday.

Underscoring the concerns about China’s military, the legislature’s spokesman, Jiang Enzhu, also accused the president of Taiwan of manipulating political divisions there to steer it toward formal independence. China’s military spending is largely oriented toward possible conflicts over Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949 and has refused Beijing’s offers for peaceful reunification.