Fu Ying, spokesperson for the fifth session of China’s 12th National People’s Congress (NPC), speaks during a press conference on the session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2017. The fifth session of the 12th NPC is scheduled to open in Beijing on March 5.

China’s 2017 defense budget will expand by around 7 percent, a spokesperson for the annual session of the country’s top legislature said Saturday.

Fu Ying, spokesperson for the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) annual session, said the increase is in line with China’s economic development and defense needs.

The country’s defense budget rose by 7.6 percent in 2016.

The fresh raise could be the country’s slowest defense budget rise in more than a decade, and mark the second time that defense budget dip to single-digit increase since 2010. In 2009, the figure was about 15 percent.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month pledged to further strengthen his country’s armed forces.

In his first address to Congress after taking office, Trump proposed a huge 54-billion-U.S.-dollar surge in the country’s military spending, up 10 percent from the previous year.

Fu, meanwhile, noted that China’s defense spending accounts for about only 1.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, as compared with NATO members’ pledge to dedicate at least 2 percent of GDP to defense.

“You should ask them what their intentions are,” Fu told reporters.

Fu Ying, spokesperson for the fifth session of China’s 12th National People’s Congress (NPC), speaks during a press conference on the session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2017.

The annual session of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), is scheduled to open Sunday morning in Beijing, a spokesperson told a press conference Saturday.

The fifth session of the 12th NPC will conclude on March 15, said Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the session.

A 169-member presidium for the session has been elected at a preparatory meeting. The presidium convened its first meeting Saturday morning and adopted the session’s agenda, she said.

National lawmakers will deliberate six reports including the government work report, draft general provisions of civil law, and three bills concerning the election of deputies to the 13th NPC, according to Fu.

China’s first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 is expected to dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab three times after its planned launch in April, sources said Saturday.

Tianzhou-1 will be sent into space from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province aboard a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket, according to a spokesperson of China’s manned space program.

It is scheduled to refuel Tiangong-2 three times and carry out experiments and tests.

During the journey, Tianzhou-1 will orbit on its own for about three months and together with Tiangong-2 for about two months after their rendezvous.

At the end of the mission, Tianzhou-1 will leave the orbit and fall back to earth while Tiangong-2 will remain in orbit and continue its experiments.

The Tianzhou-1 mission will complete the second phase of the country’s manned space program.

It will be crucial for China in achieving the final step of establishing a space station around 2022.

A website was launched on Friday to commemorate late Premier Zhou Enlai, born in 1898, in the lead-up to the 120th anniversary of his birth.

The website, zhouenlai.people.cn, featured a 366-day countdown to the anniversary, an introduction to his life, and poems, calligraphy and paintings that pay tribute to Zhou, as well as Zhou’s family letters and links to memorial halls dedicated to him in China and abroad.

Visitors can offer virtual “flowers” and pay homage to Zhou online as well as post messages to the website.

Nearly 100 outstanding volunteers and their families enjoyed a day of magic at Shanghai Disneyland Friday, to celebrate community volunteerism and the upcoming China Youth Volunteer Service Day.

These volunteers, including a torchbearer of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, were selected by the Shanghai Volunteer Foundation as the first group of recipients of the Shanghai Disney Resort Outstanding Volunteer Recognition Program.

The program, founded by Shanghai Disney Resort and the Shanghai Volunteer Foundation, began on December 5 last year, International Volunteer Day.

In the program, 1,000 volunteers and their families will be recognized and invited to enjoy a day at Shanghai Disneyland to reward their contributions to society.

“It is one of Disney’s core values to promote community volunteerism wherever we operate, including here in Shanghai. Through the program, we look forward to working together with the Shanghai Volunteer Foundation to pursue our shared vision of promoting community volunteerism throughout the city,” said Philippe Gas, general manager of Shanghai Disney Resort.

The China Youth Volunteer Service Day is on March 5, the memorial day of Lei Feng, a young soldier in the 1960s, known for his lifetime of selflessly service to others.

As of early February, Shanghai Disneyland had received over 7 million visitors since it opened in June 2016.