Posted on 05/22/2007 8:49:17 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
May 17, 2007
China's Quest for a Superpower Military
by John J. Tkacik, Jr.
Backgrounder #2036
The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced on March 4, 2007, that it would increase the country's military budget by 17.8 percent in 2007 to a total of $45 billion—by far the largest acknowledged amount that China has ever spent on its military.1 The Chinese government went out of its way to reassure the world that this spending hike was normal and need not worry anyone. "China is committed to taking a path of peaceful development and it pursues a defensive military posture," a spokesman said.2
As the Chinese aphorism goes, "listen to what they say, but observe what they do," and what Beijing is saying is quite different from what it is doing.
The resources that Beijing devotes to its armed forces put China in the top stratum of global military powers. With China's 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) in excess of $2.5 trillion (about $10 trillion in purchasing power parity terms) and its military spending estimated by the Central Intelligence Agency at 4.3 percent of GDP,3 China's military spending is more accurately pegged at about $430 billion than at $45 billion.
While China's declared military budget primarily includes personnel costs (and a 17.8 percent military pay hike is reasonable), the declared budget is only a small part of overall Chinese military spending. The exact methodology that U.S. intelligence agencies use to estimate the military's share of China's GDP is classified, but it reportedly accounts foreign arms purchases, subsidies to military industries, China's space program (which is under the absolute command of the Central Military Commission), the 660,000-man People's Armed Police, provincial militias, and reserve forces—all of which are excluded from official military budget figures.4[1][2][3][4]
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
I hope that financial WMD’s go off in China before their military capability is ready, which is a likely scenario.
We need to let Japan arm itself. We need a balance of power in the Pacific.
Communist’s really are pathetic liars.
China does not need a superpower military. The only point of contention there is between them and us is Taiwan, which may ultimately be resolved by our pulling the entire population of the place back to one or two of our own island possessions 7000 miles back from the Asian mainland. The only other thing they need a military for is to kidnap 70,000,000 Indian or Indonesian women, and they don’t really need aircraft carriers for that.
I hope so too, even if a potentially nuclear civil war between warlords could be in the offing over there.
Better them than us.
Communist’s really are pathetic liars.
:::
The ChiComs are no different than OUR socialists. They have to lie, to survive. And we are funding the ChiComs’ military build up. This along with taking the screwing they give us by devaluing their currency.
I wonder where they are getting the funds to support this? It can’t be chinese taxes...........
All they need now is for Hillary to win in ‘08. Taiwan will be a gift.
It would take Japan 5 minutes to re-arm itself.
I’m still a sucker for good Chinese food though....
Make it yourself. Recipes are all over Internet.:-)
What we really need to concentrate on is our people and making sure our children will people able to compete economically. With our schools constantly lowering standards and preventing "winners and losers" we are setting ourselves up for future failure.
More politicos take Arab money than every before and answer to their handlers rather than their constituents.
Russia will have the political will and military power to nuke China and Europe and the Political centers of the US.
We can pay now and take on the libs and their suicidal power mongering or pay later.
“I might gather enough concern to worry it if the Chinese government provided an environment conducive to intellectual creativity, but until then, they can only be as good as the yesterday technology they can buy or steal.”
How about 1,000,000 graduates a year of engineering and other technology specialists? They stole our old technology and our funding to leapfrog two decades ahead and now have the money and the people to surpass our technology advantage in the next decade.
When did that happen? I guess I slept through their military build-up.
That is true and a good point. I must reiterate my point though.
Until the Chinese government providess an environment conducive to intellectual creativity, they cannot advance far enough, fast enough to keep up.
Also, I must ask; What percentage of those graduates return to china and work in the cutting edge technology industry?
“Russia will have the political will and military power to nuke China and Europe and the Political centers of the US.”
They always had this nuclear potential but what Russia really needed was what the West handed to them on a silver platter - division between the US and EU. We all see the real side of Russia now, intimidating neighboring states with energy blackmail and a new conventional build-up. Oh yeah, plus they have pretty much backed out of middle range ballistic missle ban on the European continent and are re-arming. Missle shields going into Poland and the Czech Republic are not simply for Iranian missles people, despite what we project into the media about them being installed there.
Thankfully, schooling has little to do with economic success. Americans have tested lower than most developed countries for several decades now. Indeed, most of us have been able to overcome 12 years of schooling to go on and lead productive lives. Economic prosperity has more to do with a market economy, property rights, low taxes, and personal freedoms than anything else.
“That is true and a good point. I must reiterate my point though.
Until the Chinese government providess an environment conducive to intellectual creativity, they cannot advance far enough, fast enough to keep up.
Also, I must ask; What percentage of those graduates return to china and work in the cutting edge technology industry?”
Your point is also good about the environment to spur creativity/production. I did a study for Booz Allen Hamilton for disposable income which included personal income by trades. Engineering and technology personele literally doubled in disposable income over a 5 year span. What does that say? It means the envrionment is there to fuel invention and personal reward. I don’t know how many people stay in China compared to obtaining and H1 Visa to come here but that is a valid point. I would say in 1996 we had thirty years on the Chinese. Now I would say we are down to less then a decade before they begin tilting the technology advantage in their favor.
The good news? We have an ocean between us and they have not mastered the aircraft carrier to really project power. I would say we would not want any part of any Asian conflict with China involved at this point. What happened in Korea as a draw would certainly be an American defeat at this point in history but that probably isn’t shocking news to anyone...
Hmmmm - I was not aware of this. Is it your opinion that these folks are comfortable with this or do they fear the government will revert to kind and take it back? I would think if they fear this, it could hinder creativity.
Good thing about the navy :)
Allow Japan to re-arm itself. Its been 60 years since WWII.
Allow Japan to re-arm itself. Its been 60 years since WWII.
Japan’s military is high-tech.YES.But is it suitable for offensive operations.NO.
They have very little stand-off capability with surface or air-launched weaponry to hit the Chinese mainland.There is no point downing a few fighters or sinking obsolete ships when the PRC can launch 100s of ballistic & cruise missiles at you.Though Japan’s military is changing,it’s still at a small pace-the PRC is catching up with them big time.
“China will take Japan”
Ha ha ha ha, impossible. :p
China is the country with the largest number of international boundaries or water bodies with different countries.These included disputes with Vietnam,India,Russia,Japan,Indonesia,South Korea,Philippines to name just a few.They have fought major wars with the first two countries & have had minor skirmishes with others.
IOW,it makes sense to have a stronger military,even if there was no problem with Taiwan or Uncle Sam.
The biggest military problem they face is finding a plausible place to kidnap 70,000,000 women.
“Hmmmm - I was not aware of this. Is it your opinion that these folks are comfortable with this or do they fear the government will revert to kind and take it back? I would think if they fear this, it could hinder creativity.
Good thing about the navy :)”
Well, their Socialist/Semi-Communist government always allows for them to take anything away China seems to be coddling the emerging middle class which are made up of business executives, I.T. & Engineering personell. Kickbacks to lower level government officials is very common.
Thank you for the education. Perhaps I shall gather a bit more concern :)
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