Photo from China Digital TimesChina's Military Gets A Hike -- Forbes Magazine
On March 4, Beijing said that this year's military budget will increase 14.9%. The jump in spending is "modest," insisted Li Zhaoxing, the spokesman for the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, where the announcement was made. The additional funding for the People's Liberation Army is, in the words of the official Xinhua News Agency, "mainly for better treatment of servicemen," specifically, subsidies and salaries. The total announced military budget is $70.27 billion.
"The country has no so-called 'hidden military expenditure,'" Li defensively said as he released the budget numbers. No analyst thinks Beijing tells the truth about the funding of the world's largest fighting force. As a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, there are "untransparent points" in the Chinese military budget. The Pentagon is on record as saying that real spending is two or three times higher than announced figures.
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My Comment: China has the manpower, resources, money, and the will to build the world's #1 military machine for the 21rst century. The reasons for this are multiple. Pride, the need to protect foreign interests, intimidate possible rivals, and to be able to project power on the international political scene.
Are we ready for this new reality? Probably not .....
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