They get a lot more for their money.
And they’re able to do this... thanks to the “free trade” morons here in the US.
Yet another brilliant “own goal” for “free trade,” as usual.
given that Bathhouse Barry and Chuckie are gutting the US military thereby leaving to door open in the pacific, this would be an optimal to build up.
China has millions of military age men who can’t find a woman because of that country’s predilection for sex-selected abortions and the 1 child policy. How else is China going to defuse their frustration? Military adventurism — that’s how.
At the same time, the west is becoming wussified — not a good confluence of social trends.
And Asian manufacturing could produce a whole lot more with much lower currencies and less expensive management.
Active Duty ping.
No communist dictatorship has even given the public a TRUE military budget.
Add another 10-15% to what they say and you’ll be somewhere in or near the ballpark.
One of my late friends was a Soviet contracts officer who dealt with the KGB’s secret military procurement program. They hid military items inside of non-military spending, such as making machineguns at a Samovar plant. Believe it was Tula 555.
The 1970’s “B Team” showed that, just from non-classified sources, the Soviet military budget was at least twice the announced size, if not larger (Collins and Graham report about 1976).
Remember, “You can always trust the communists to be communists” so lying is one of their tactics.