Report: China is spending far more on its defense budget than it has acknowledged.

prontospyder · Jul 30, 2003

U.S. officials estimate the military budget which Beijing announced as $20 billion early last year actually falls between $45 billion and $65 billion, and the report noted a potential for annual spending to increase three or four times by 2020.

China has about 450 short-range ballistic missiles but is expected to increase its inventory by more than 75 missiles each year. The sophistication and accuracy of the missiles have improved, with the Chinese army developing longer-range models of the CSS-6 missile capable of reaching as far as Okinawa, Japan, home to more than 33,000 U.S. troops.

Link

BaliBabyDoc · Jul 30, 2003

China doesn't want Okinawa . . . but Taiwan better keep a low profile . . . it's not the like the US will come to their rescue.

dexvx · Jul 30, 2003

Have you seen the US defense budget recently?

jjones · Jul 30, 2003

I forget exactly but isn't the US military budget around 360 billion?

UltraQuiet · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by: jjones
I forget exactly but isn't the US military budget around 360 billion?

It's at least $400 billion.

jjones · Jul 30, 2003

That's huge. What's the entire Federal budget? About 1-1/2 trillion?

charrison · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by: jjones
That's huge. What's the entire Federal budget? About 1-1/2 trillion?

around 2.2 trillion.

phillyTIM · Jul 30, 2003

GREAT! It's about time we have another true superpower around this world, willing and able to stop US aggression when the stakes warrant it.

jjones · Jul 30, 2003

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: jjones
That's huge. What's the entire Federal budget? About 1-1/2 trillion?

Click to expand...

around 2.2 trillion.

Wow, I hadn't realized it had gotten up so high. I haven't lived in the States since '95 so I haven't really paid attention.

HombrePequeno · Jul 31, 2003

They've been doing this for years so it's nothing new. They also lie about how well their economy is doing. They generally report around 8% GDP growth for a year when it's really around 5%.

Leon · Jul 31, 2003

GREAT! It's about time we have another true superpower around this world, willing and able to stop US aggression when the stakes warrant it.

Given the intense amount of hatred for US coming from you, I wonder why you are still here? Move to China, the country where the human rights are the first priority (as Tibet population will tell you), and where peaceful student demostrations against the government never end up with 2,000 dead and thousands more wounded.

Leon

tnitsuj · Jul 31, 2003

We should invade quickly before they have the opportunity to become a threat.

gsaldivar · Jul 31, 2003

China is spending far more on its defense budget than it has acknowledged.

Hm.... I think I'll file this under "No sh!t, Sherlock"

:beer:

Brie · Jul 31, 2003

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
We should invade quickly before they have the opportunity to become a threat.

This isnt 1951...Been there done that

AndrewR · Jul 31, 2003

Originally posted by: jjones
I forget exactly but isn't the US military budget around 360 billion?

Somewhere around there, yes, if you don't count the operational costs of the Iraqi war which were paid out in supplemental appropriations.

Here are some key facts to consider in comparison:

China doesn't pay its troops even remotely as well as the US does and also doesn't provide the same level of creature comforts, medical care (scary that they have worse!), and other benefits. This section of the US defence budget is hefty.

China does not have troops stationed overseas. They have no costs for overseas installations, air and sealift, and charter cargo vessels for supplies, materials, etc.

Care to guess how much the Chinese military pays for environmental cleanup and compliance with EPA-style laws?

China does not have a very large space program with constellations of satellites. Think about how much ONE military satellite costs.

Just off the top of my head and just food for thought.

Hayabusa Rider · Jul 31, 2003

Originally posted by: AndrewR

Originally posted by: jjones
I forget exactly but isn't the US military budget around 360 billion?

Click to expand...

Somewhere around there, yes, if you don't count the operational costs of the Iraqi war which were paid out in supplemental appropriations.

Here are some key facts to consider in comparison:

China doesn't pay its troops even remotely as well as the US does and also doesn't provide the same level of creature comforts, medical care (scary that they have worse!), and other benefits. This section of the US defence budget is hefty.

China does not have troops stationed overseas. They have no costs for overseas installations, air and sealift, and charter cargo vessels for supplies, materials, etc.

Care to guess how much the Chinese military pays for environmental cleanup and compliance with EPA-style laws?

China does not have a very large space program with constellations of satellites. Think about how much ONE military satellite costs.

Just off the top of my head and just food for thought.

So in practice, a dollar goes further there than here. Not suprising. I came to this conclusion quite some time ago, and have been trying to work out an equivalent. China is certainly developing it's space program far more aggressively than we are. A decade's time should bring then much closer. They can use big dumb boosters as a far lower cost than the Shuttle (which I realize does not launch all our satellites) without a major commitment to our kind of shuttle program to sap resources. As an aside, we should have kept the Saturn type program going. Wasn't sexy enough though, and NASA wanted to kill it as fast as they could. Bad move on their part.

tec699 · Jul 31, 2003

Originally posted by: phillyTIM
GREAT! It's about time we have another true superpower around this world, willing and able to stop US aggression when the stakes warrant it.

Yea great. While we blow money down the ever expanding sink hole that is our military, we have people that are going to prison at an alarming rate. Teen pregnancy is high, children aren't getting the education that is needed to compete with other countries, poverty is quickly over taking middle America, illegial immigration is quickly costing America a fortune and yet let's pump more money into our military.

It's not the other countires I worry about, it's little Johnny who didn't get the proper education and now he's pissed. Oh.. don't worry about China because little Johnny just raped your little daughter and put a bullet in her head. But look at our great military.

Will the military come to rescue you when some punk robs your house and rapes your child, all because he got an inadequate education due to the fact that their is no more money left?!

It amazes me.. We can blow money on our military and give huge amounts of money to other countries but yet the government can't even give us free medical. We have to pay $20 for a god damn pill.

:|

Leon · Jul 31, 2003

illegial immigration is quickly costing America a fortune

Yet when I mentioned (jokingly!) about deporting illegals in the other post, I was called a racist.

Much hypocrisy I sense in you, my friend

Leon

shuan24 · Jul 31, 2003

You cant share the world with more than one superpower.

There can only be one.

Report: China is spending far more on its defense budget than it has acknowledged.

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