China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019.
Posted on 05/07/2024 8:37:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
China’s communist regime spent $710.6 billion on its military in 2022, more than three times Beijing’s publicly stated totals, according to a report from the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
“Considering that the Pentagon has labeled China the ‘pacing challenge,’ this revelation should cause concern,” the April 29 report reads.
“When compared globally, China’s estimated $711 billion military budget illustrates that China is more of a ‘pacing threat’ than a ‘pacing challenge.’”
Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the AEI and the author of the report, explained that she came up with the figure based on her calculation after accounting for economic adjustments, including cheaper labor costs in China, and estimating “reasonable but uncounted expenditures.”
China's DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019.
In 2022, the Chinese regime announced that its defense spending for the year would be $229 billion.
Beijing’s self-reported military spending should also include the money that it spent on its paramilitary organizations, Ms. Eaglen wrote, since these groups “are increasingly used in tandem with” the regime’s military, which is officially called the People’s Liberation Army.
She estimated that Beijing spent $45.2 billion on its People’s Armed Police Force and $2.1 billion on its China Coast Guard in 2022.
China doesn’t include other relevant expenditures related to its space forces, military satellites, or counter-space capabilities in its defense budget, according to the report.
“Given many satellites’ inherent dual-use capability and Beijing’s general adherence to a strategy of military-civil fusion in space policy, AEI’s model counted this entire budget as a military expenditure,” the report reads.
Ms. Eaglen estimated that China’s space budget in 2022 could have been $21 billion.
Other hidden expenditures included spending on military demobilization, retirement, and pensions, which the author estimated to total $46.1 billion. China likely spent more than $1.8 billion on continued construction of military facilities in the South China Sea and arms imports, according to the report.
A portion of the $711 billion spending also included military research and development expenditures, which Ms. Eaglen estimated to be $45.8 billion. However, she noted that the estimated military research and development spending could be much higher, considering the regime’s military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy, cyberespionage operations, and reliance on state-owned companies.
“If fully evaluated, Beijing’s expenditures via military-civil fusion and dual-use technology investments prove even the much larger $711 billion figure underestimates China’s military investments,” the report reads.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using the MCF strategy to acquire cutting-edge technologies, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
According to the State Department, the regime is implementing the strategy through “licit and illicit means,” such as theft, to achieve military dominance. Private companies, joint research institutes, and academia are “being exploited” to help the CCP’s military advance, often “without their knowledge or consent,” the department warned.
“In just the past decade, however, China has managed to rapidly build sophisticated missile forces, surpass the United States by building the largest navy in the world, and catch up to and even exceed the United States in many other key national security areas,” the report reads.
“By calculating the true buying power behind the Chinese military budget, it’s easy to understand how Beijing can continue this unprecedented military buildup while, on paper, appearing to spend much less.”
In comparison, the United States spent $742.2 billion on its military in 2022, excluding supplemental spending, according to the report.
However, Ms. Eaglen noted that the approximately equal spending level between the two countries “plays to Beijing’s benefit.”
Continue reading at the Epoch Times
Planning for war with the U.S.
I wonder what they have in mind? 🤡
Do they go into debt to spend that much money?
Of course. None of this would be happening under Trump. Biden depleted out strategic reserves to cripple the US in case of a war with China and Russia. It’s all by design.
China’s most strategic move would be to wait for Russia’s weakest point in molesting Ukraine, sending in golf carts and museum pieces, and take large chunks of prime real estate in the far east like Sakhalin Island, which wouldn’t be protested by the west like attacking Taiwan.
they could say that they spend $2trillion and one would have no way of knowing the actual amount.
I was just searching the number of students that return home or stay from that other thread. The China govt number is fr 1978-2019 86% return home-I don’t believe that number at all.
If we choose to believe the internet and the Chinese govt,
they were $13.7 trillion in debt as of the end of 2022.
https://countryeconomy.com/national-debt/china
The pootz would absolutely launch nukes on xi if that happened. Millions of Russians dead. Maybe half a billion chinamen.
Works for me.
Also, we need be using our own money for our own border, not Ukraine's.
.
Even Politio cites research by LTSG, a defense consultancy, that
Research into Chinese defense investments since 2000 reveals that, compared with the United States, China has prioritized purchasing weapons and equipment over spending on personnel salaries or on operations and maintenance. As a result, the U.S. military is on track to be outgunned — potentially in quantity and quality of armaments — by the end of President Joe Biden’s first term. The lack of data on Chinese defense spending reflects the notorious unreliability of official releases from Beijing. Annual People’s Republic of China Finance Ministry announcements of the defense budget diverge from Defense Ministry disclosures, and have historically omitted cost categories that other countries include, such as weapons imports.
To address this challenge, LTSG research group conducted a multiyear, open-source effort to estimate Chinese defense spending since 2000 by service across different categories such as personnel, operations and maintenance, and procurement...For procurement, U.S. dollar estimates were converted to renminbi. The results showed consistent annual inflation-adjusted growth of roughly 10 percent for the past 20 years..If, as projected, by 2024 the PLA’s annual procurement value exceeds that of the U.S. military, then by about 2030 the United States will no longer boast the world’s most advanced fighting force in total inventory value.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-china-watcher/2021/05/27/china-could-soon-outgun-the-us-493014
And besides procurement costs,
The official defense budget does not account for all of China’s military-related activities. For example, many defense-related outlays fall directly under the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s highest military authority, chaired by Xi Jinping. For instance, the People’s Armed Police (PAP), a paramilitary force charged with maintaining internal security and supporting the military in times of war, is under the command of the CMC but not included in the budget. The Chinese Coast Guard, which plays a key role in asserting China’s maritime claims and was placed under the control of the PAP in 2018, is likewise excluded from the official budget.
According to SIPRI, China’s military spending far exceeds that of its neighbors and was greater than the combined expenditure of India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in 2019. Cross-national comparisons are insightful, but accounting for variations in prices is difficult. For example, the current annual pay for an entry-level active-duty U.S. soldier (about $39,600) would likely cover the cost of several PLA soldiers due to price differences. When adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), China’s 2019 defense expenditure rises by well over $100 billion. - https://www.csis.org/analysis/understanding-chinas-2021-defense-budget
No, their planning for war with the gun-toting rednecks. The "U.S." will probably ask for Chinese assistance to quell the revolution/uprising that will happen when the northeast globalists make the move to finally install a full blown dictatorship.
and it’s still a Paper Military
they could say that they spend $2trillion and one would have no way of knowing the actual amount.
—
or how much was stolen or how much went for heating tea for the troops.
America keeps buying things from the keeps them wealthy enough to increase the their military powers.
The should have never been allowed into the free trade agreement deals.
They have slave labor you can’t beat that cost of operating a business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.