Not difficult to do when you buy $1,280 coffee cups
Not to mention the forever wars where the US spent decades (and will spend more) blowing up sand dunes. If we're talking about
effective military spending, i.e., money going into building up military capability, it's not at all clear that the US is the biggest military spender in the world.
The difference is that the PLA is allocated a predictable share of the Chinese economy. This certainty gives the PLA the scope to conduct long-term planning and structure its acquisition and doctrine accordingly; the results of this method speak for themselves.
Contrast this with the US military which has to come up with all sorts of boondoggles and grifts to justify even a constant share of the US economy. Every Congressional budget session is an adventure. The results of this method are also obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes: $1,280 coffee cups and all the rest of the fraud.
This can be summarized in two pictures. The Chinese way produces this
while the American way produces this
It's not the only difference, as I've already pointed out. There's something to be said for a state conducting itself with dignity, but then again, when has dignity ever associated itself with America?
I think you just uncovered the Pentagon's next grift.