China will spend $91.5 billion on the People Liberation Army, navy and air forces next year, marking a return to double-digit spending. Last year the defense budget rose 7.5 percent. While this may sound small in comparison to other nations, that includes the low pay of 3.45 Million Communist Chinese troops, and would not even cover the salaries OR the personal equipment budgets of properly paid, smaller Armies.
The increase is likely to increase alarm in Taiwan, Japan, India and other parts of Asia. While the $91.5 Billion is the second largest in the world, there remains a lot of room for further growth of that budget which represents only 1.4% of Chinese GDP, but also represents lower labor costs of conscription and government owned military production. Nor is it properly reprensentative of the actual budget, as China puts military expenditures into other categories, while American politicians hide other expenditures in military budgets.
To put this into perspective, China spends on average $26,483 per individual in its forces, to include the cost of every ship, plane, rifle, and paycheck. In contrast, the US spends $468,517/year averaged across each Active Duty Servicemember. The difference is the cost of equipment, labor, and paychecks to troops. China can put 5x the number of new troops on the battlefield every year than can the US, and do so much cheaper.
Announcing the military budget ahead of the annual National People's Congress, parliamentary spokesman Li Zhaoxing sought to such allay fears. Li said China is devoted to peaceful development and that Beijing's military policy is defensive by nature. Uh huh, like they would say that the policy was designed to take Taiwan by force, though that is often alluded to in their rhetoric. The balance of power with China has always rested on the fact that they could put more men on the battlefield than any enemy could put bullets, in China, but that they could not move those troops to distant battlefields. China is currently improving its ability to match foreign technologies and force projection capacity.
But China's military build-up has many governments rattled, including the U.S. The PLA recently revealed its first stealth jet fighter. Something SecDef Gates said would not be a factor when he nixed programs for developing the next generation of fighters in the American inventory.
The navy is fast expanding into distant waters and work on aircraft carriers and sophisticated weaponry have caused many defense analysts to say the balance of power in the Pacific is leaning China's way.
This week, the Japanese, Philippine and Vietnamese governments complained that Chinese military planes and naval vessels came close to violating their sovereign airspace and territorial waters.
Professor James Nolt is the campus dean of the New York Institute of Technology at Nanjing University, and an "expert" on security issues. He says much of the budget increase will go toward rising costs as China updates its military equipment to international standards. He also says some of the money will be spent on higher wages for personnel with higher skills.
Many regional security experts think China's real military budget is far higher, with extra spending buried in other departments or hidden from public gaze.
China's neighbors are upgrading their forces in response to its buildup, while US Politicians and MSM continue to downplay the potential threat.
Portions of this article are republished from Voice of America.
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