Real chinese military budget

Here is the chinese military budget represented by four insitutions




SIPRI is Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
RAND is the RAND Corporation.
Offical budget is chinas government figure
DoD is deparment of defense

And as a percentage figure



As you can see china does spend more than japan according to some reports and a hgiher percentage but still lower than other countries. What the US dont want to factor in is the PLA is a massive army and 51billion is not a lot compared to the american budget. Theses aren't for a build up but a moderization of her forces. Does every country deserve new equipment. Japan gets new equipment quite regulary while the PLA doesn't. They(japan) say that they are modernizing because the PLA is getting new equipment. The PLA thus far has not shown intention to attack japan nor does japan ahve to worry about getting nuked by china

The reason china is sustaining these military modernization is because she is demobilizing her massive army has been retiring massive fleets of aircraft to support units second line units and jsut scrapping them altogther. Anyway china has been demoblizing troops and now enjoys are higher per capita of funding to each soldier

With less soldiers and less aircraft/ships she closes down some of the barracks airbases and naval bases. she uses that money alone with extra money that the chinese government gives them. some times ranging from 10%-17% starting from the 90s. And when china some newer machines she only buys a little and uses them in her elite divisons. The other divisons just soldier on with the same equipment or gets the equipment the elite divisons had but got replaced with newer equipment. So they are hand downs

The offical chinese budgect covers all these areas courtesy of globalsecruity
China's expenditure on national defense falls into the following categories: personnel expenses, mainly including pay, food and clothing of military and non-military personnel; costs for maintenance of activities, mainly including military training, construction and maintenance of facilities and running expenses; and costs for equipment, including research and experimentation, procurement, maintenance, transportation and storage. In terms of the scope of logistic support, these expenditures cover not only active service personnel, but also militia and reserve requirements.
Chinese Budget

From the most exaggerated estimates it includes everything from supercomputers to datalinks and civillan engines. All chinese space launchs even for foriegn compaines. Most dual-use technology. And out blown examples of pay rise

eg. chinas offical defense budget increased by 17% to 25billion and they just increased chinas un-offical budget of 50billion by that same amount. good research on the DoDs part? The russian bear ring any bells

While it is my opinion that chinas foriegn imports of arms are not included in the offical defense budget I do include all chinese RnD programs and some military oriented space programs. So my esitmate is about 40billion.

China has brought a large number of russian equipment but russian equipment is cheaper than western equipment with some of the manufracturing being done in china to save money. Since the early 90s china has brought a very large number of russian equipment gradually building out to 2000 and now is slowly disappearing.

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[edit on 9-2-2006 by chinawhite]

"China’s military spending is 40 to 70 percent higher than it officially acknowledges, and is likely to exceed that of any U.S. ally in two decades, according to a study released May 19 (2005) by the RAND Corporation.

The study estimated China’s current annual defense spending at between 2.3 and 2.8 percent of its gross domestic product, or between $69 billion and $78 billion in 2001 dollars."


The PLA has fired close to 2 Million troops in the past few years, so it's not really huge any more. And the U.S military budget (2007) is 3.2% of the GDP not 3.7% (see my quote).


[edit on 11-2-2006 by NWguy83]

Your own source contridicts itself. It said 40-70% more than the offical budget than says $69 billion and $78 billion.

Chinas offical budget is 30billion. 40% more is about 42billion and 70% is about 51billion. Chinas economy is 1.8trillion and 2.3% is about 41billion and 2.8% is about 51billion.

So how is my data wrong?

Originally posted by chinawhite
Your own source contridicts itself. It said 40-70% more than the offical budget than says $69 billion and $78 billion.

Chinas offical budget is 30billion. 40% more is about 42billion and 70% is about 51billion. Chinas economy is 1.8trillion and 2.3% is about 41billion and 2.8% is about 51billion.

So how is my data wrong?

I tried looking on RAND's site for the original article, because I got that from AFP. Anyway I can't find it, I thought maybe there was a error along the way. You know, right amount but wrong percent.

China's budget eh...

Official - $29.9b
SIPRI - $35.4b
RAND - $42-$51b
CIA - $67b
DoD - $90b
Pentagon - $150b

Just plain halarious.....

In reality we nor anyone else (possibily not even the Chinese themselves !) have the slightest clue what the Chinese military budget is

Originally posted by NWguy83
I tried looking on RAND's site for the original article, because I got that from AFP. Anyway I can't find it, I thought maybe there was a error along the way. You know, right amount but wrong percent.

NWguy83,

Heres a copy of the article from a chinsite. I can garantee its not fixed or whatever
www.sinodefence.com...

The figures of 69billion are qoted as 2001 dollars. I dont know the difference but it would be pretty large. But the 69billion is not for current figures.

eg. from the article

According a senior RAND researcher, China's defence spending has more than doubled over the past six years, almost catching up with Great Britain and Japan.

It says almost catching up with japan and GB. thats means its spending is lower than that of those two countries and couldn't be higher than 69billion or whatever figure GB has

the us budget is actually far more than you claim.

www.air-attack.com...

Justin