What Is China's Real Defense Budget?

Kyle Mizokami, Real Clear Defense/War Is Boring: How Much Is China Really Spending on Its Military?

China has announced its defense budget for 2015. Beijing will spend the equivalent of $144.2 billion dollars on its military, a 10.1-percent increase year over year.

But this probably isn’t the real number — and there are serious questions about Beijing’s defense budget. For one, how much of an actual increase will the Chinese military get? Does this keep track with economic growth? And what does China spend more on — defending against foreign enemies or its own people?

The answers to those questions are … complicated.

WNU Editor: The Chinese national security budget is just as complicated as Americas. Kyle Mizokami is right when he says the following ....

.... China has more than one defense budget.

China’s internal security apparatus, which controls everything from the paramilitary People’s Armed Police to the so-called “Great Firewall of China” that blocks Internet traffic, is a juggernaut which rivals the Chinese military in spending.

Beijing declined to release the numbers for its internal security budget in 2013 and 2014, leading many to speculate that it was hiding an embarrassing fact. Namely, that China might spend more on internal security — defending against its own people — than it spends on deterring external enemies.

America's intelligence budget is separate from the Pentagon's .... and this does not include other U.S. government departments with a defense link .... like The Department of Energy (nuclear weapons), war contingency budgets, research projects via through NASA/DARPA/etc.. The Chinese are now employing the same methods .... they have learned from the best and are now doing the same thing that the U.S. has been doing for years.