China Decides On Double-Digit Hike For Military Spending In 2014, Its Highest In Three Years

[Genesis]

China Boosts Defense Spending 12% as Xi Strengthens Military - Bloomberg

just show the comment section for such news and it's the perfect defence.

Apparently, it's not only not effective, but laughable. We are a nation of idiots that can't press a button.

So even if we increase defence budget by 1000%, it's still cool, cause we are no threat, let me quote somebody to give an idea.

*Yawn*....B2 stealth nuclear bomber GG NO RE China

Better luck next time Lee!

Be real! China is no match for Japan and never will be. They may spend billions dollars to upgrade their forces, but they will never get the respect of being a world leader. If you ask me, they act more like a nouveau riche thug who likes to pick on their small SE Asian neighbors. The Vietnamese taught them a lesson in 1979 when they invaded Vietnam. Within a month they were forced to withdraw. God forbid if they decide to pick on the Japanese.

in a way , this is a reduction, 12% is lower than inflation

and much more

 

[jkroo]

I think 3% of GDP required to decrease technology gap and manufacture more new toys.

 

[dray]

China Decides On Double-Digit Hike For Military Spending In 2014, Its Highest In Three Years; Japan, US Concerned.

China announced Wednesday that it will ramp up its military spending for 2014 to mark the highest increase in three years, much to the concern of its neighbors, according to reports.

A budget report prepared by the National People’s Congress, or NPC, estimated the expenditure for national defense at 808.23 billion yuan ($132 billion), an increase of 12.2 percent. Beijing has been increasing expenditure on the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, with double-digit hikes, as it seeks to increase its influence in the Asia Pacific, as witnessed by its escalation of territorial disputes with Japan and other neighbors.

"We will resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang reportedly said at the opening session of the NPC. "We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernize them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age," Li added, according to Reuters.

Last year, China increased its defense budget by 10.7 percent. The Asian giant's move to increase defense spending at a time when other countries, hurt by slowing economies, are cutting back, has raised concerns in Tokyo, which has been in a territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Shortly after the announcement was made, Japan expressed concerns over the absence of details in the increase in military spending declared by China.

"The transparency of China's defense policy and military capacity, or lack thereof, has become a matter of concern for the international community, including Japan," Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan said, according to AFP.

Analysts also reportedly believe that China’s military expenditure is much more than what is declared officially. According to AFP, the Pentagon estimated China's defense spending in 2012 to have been between $135 billion and $215 billion.

David Helvey, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said Tuesday at a U.S. Senate committee hearing, that the Pentagon was looking to build “healthy” ties with the Chinese military, but wanted China to be more forthcoming in its declarations about its armed forces, according to Reuters.

"We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China's growing military and its increasingly assertive behavior in the maritime domain," Helvey said, expressing concern about China’s assertion of sovereignty over 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is rich in oil and gas, Reuters reported.

The U.S., which approved a defense budget of $633 billion for 2014 in December, tops the list when it comes to defense spending.

China Decides On Double-Digit Hike For Military Spending In 2014, Its Highest In Three Years; Japan, US Concerned

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

It's nothing even compared to our last year's GDP of $9.3 trillion.

Only 1.4% of last year's GDP.

It's really not enough, I just hope our Government is spending a Hell of a lot more in secret, double the official amount hopefully.

National security is a thousand times more important than "transparency" for the sake of foreigners.

 

[terranMarine]

China doesn't give a f*ck about transparency especially answering to USA and Japan. Let them keep publishing articles with their concerns as we grow our muscles (hopefully more than 1.4 %).

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Look at the other major defence spenders:

USA and Russia, around 5% of GDP on defence.

UK and France, around 3% of GDP on defence.

Saudi Arabia, around 9% of GDP on defence.


Now look at us, we're only spending 1.4% of GDP on defence, even though we have to defend the largest population in the entire world? We have to defend one of the longest borders in the entire world, and we have powerful rival nations all around us, not the least of which is the US Navy?

Our defence spending as a percentage of GDP goes down every year, we need to start correlating our defence spending with around 3% of our GDP.

I have faith in our leaders that they are spending much more on defence than they are officially declaring.

 

[english_man]

I think in all reality China must spend an awful lot more money on defense than is declared officially.........and even the Pentagon thinks this.

Why do i think this?......well being British, we have one of the worlds largest defense budgets, yet we seem to be unable to procure new equipment in any reasonable quantity, even though what ships, planes and army equipment we have is on a par with the Americans technologically wise!

Now, for comparison, when i look at the Chinese military, they have numerous equipment design and build projects going on, such as in their Navy alone
they are in the process of..............

design and build of new aircraft carriers.
serial production of their advanced 'AEGIS' missile destroyers 052D.
the design of the forthcoming mother of all surface warships the type 055.
continued production of the advanced 054A Frigates.
the design of the 054A Frigates successor the Type 057 (or 054B).
the high production run of the 056 corvette
the design and build of new ballistic missile subs, and hunter killer subs.
the continual production of the 039 or 041 diesel subs.
design and build of assault ships.
numerous naval missile weapons systems.

and so forth.....................then you have the PLAAF, and the stealth fighter programs.........and so on.

Just these programs alone, if they were being made in the West, would cost a colossal amount of money.

So, to our Chinese friends here, don't worry, i do think your government is spending a great deal of money on defense, and if their was a need, we all know China could really ramp up its defense spending..........but then again that would scare the Americans wouldn't it?.

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

Look at the other major defence spenders:

USA and Russia, around 5% of GDP on defence.

UK and France, around 3% of GDP on defence.

Saudi Arabia, around 9% of GDP on defence.


Now look at us, we're only spending 1.4% of GDP on defence, even though we have to defend the largest population in the entire world? We have to defend one of the longest borders in the entire world, and we have powerful rival nations all around us, not the least of which is the US Navy?

Our defence spending as a percentage of GDP goes down every year, we need to start correlating our defence spending with around 3% of our GDP.

I have faith in our leaders that they are spending much more on defence than they are officially declaring.

I think that different accounting standards leads to lower official military spending. The second artillery is not counted and then there is also the PAP. I remember a lecture from Dennis blaskow about the PLA having commercial interests in agriculture and other non military projects.
The current pace of military buildup is fine IMO, too fast and all your hardware ages at the same time like a population boom.

 

[Genesis]

There's a lot of problem with Chinese military for now.

The land army is way too big, but it needs to be due to our strategic airforce not coming online until about 2020, so we have to have troops stationed in various places, instead of ability to sent a division to anywhere in China in 4-5 hours or less.

Chinese weapons are not up to the expectation of the army, they are constantly improving testing to be the best before they are sure it will remain effective for 10-20 years.

With no wars, things like bullet proof vest and a few other things that have expiration date can't be mass produced or it will go bad, if there are not wars, unlike America, war in every neighbourhood.

I suspect a big lay off of troops and restructuring of the army in terms of marines and land forces.

there's also a lot of 2 year soldiers, not enough time to learn everything and be effective.

There's a lot of other things that needs to be addressed before we make a big push, also we are not that rich, we got a ton of programs. Only the Saudi oil kings can spend 9% on military and get away with it.

 

[thesolar65]

China Decides On Double-Digit Hike For Military Spending In 2014, Its Highest In Three Years; Japan, US Concerned.

China announced Wednesday that it will ramp up its military spending for 2014 to mark the highest increase in three years, much to the concern of its neighbors, according to reports.

A budget report prepared by the National People’s Congress, or NPC, estimated the expenditure for national defense at 808.23 billion yuan ($132 billion), an increase of 12.2 percent. Beijing has been increasing expenditure on the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, with double-digit hikes, as it seeks to increase its influence in the Asia Pacific, as witnessed by its escalation of territorial disputes with Japan and other neighbors.

"We will resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Premier Li Keqiang reportedly said at the opening session of the NPC. "We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernize them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age," Li added, according to Reuters.

Last year, China increased its defense budget by 10.7 percent. The Asian giant's move to increase defense spending at a time when other countries, hurt by slowing economies, are cutting back, has raised concerns in Tokyo, which has been in a territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Shortly after the announcement was made, Japan expressed concerns over the absence of details in the increase in military spending declared by China.

"The transparency of China's defense policy and military capacity, or lack thereof, has become a matter of concern for the international community, including Japan," Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan said, according to AFP.

Analysts also reportedly believe that China’s military expenditure is much more than what is declared officially. According to AFP, the Pentagon estimated China's defense spending in 2012 to have been between $135 billion and $215 billion.

David Helvey, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said Tuesday at a U.S. Senate committee hearing, that the Pentagon was looking to build “healthy” ties with the Chinese military, but wanted China to be more forthcoming in its declarations about its armed forces, according to Reuters.

"We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China's growing military and its increasingly assertive behavior in the maritime domain," Helvey said, expressing concern about China’s assertion of sovereignty over 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is rich in oil and gas, Reuters reported.

The U.S., which approved a defense budget of $633 billion for 2014 in December, tops the list when it comes to defense spending.

China Decides On Double-Digit Hike For Military Spending In 2014, Its Highest In Three Years; Japan, US Concerned

Have Money, Will Spend. Their money, their thought!!. But one thing is certain, money does not stay with one for long!!

 

[Beidou2020]

With all the enemies like US, Japan, Australia, India, Vietnam, Philippines...surrounding, a 50% increase is barely enough. 12 per cent is suicidal. Chinese leadership firmly believes that there will be no major military conflict in the foreseeable future. This is exactly what the Manchurians did in the Qing Dynasty.

 

[lcloo]

I would like to use a very generalised (thus not really accurate) of comparison of China's defence budget against western countries budget,

1. if China's wages level of engineers and scientist are on the same scale as the West,
2. plus if the pricing of defence produts sold to China's government are in the same profit margin scales as the Western defence products manufacturers,

then the PLA's defence budget would be 150% to 200% equivalent of Western counterparts, i.e. China's spending if implemented in western countries, would result in more than USD 250 billion to USD300 billion equivalent in procurement value.

Let me cite an example, the service of one French engineer from Astom (my ex-employer) to our client in Malaysia cost USD1000 per day plus cost of food, transport and accommodation, and that was 25 years ago. I don't have current figure since I left them long time ago but you can imagine what is the rate they would charge today.

And I came across the scale of China's defence companies' engineers salaries scales just a week or two ago in CJDBY which states their salaries plus allowances ranged from 5000 Yuan plus onwards which is less than USD 1000 per month, while senior engineers could earned up to 3 or 4 times more. This is still way below what the Western engineers are earning.

And also, the salaries of PLA servicemen against that of US and other Western countries. Also the costs of food and others.

 

[bolo]

I think 3% of GDP required to decrease technology gap and manufacture more new toys.

5% would be the optimal imo.

I would like to use a very generalised (thus not really accurate) of comparison of China's defence budget against western countries budget,

1. if China's wages level of engineers and scientist are on the same scale as the West,
2. plus if the pricing of defence produts sold to China's government are in the same profit margin scales as the Western defence products manufacturers,

then the PLA's defence budget would be 150% to 200% equivalent of Western counterparts, i.e. China's spending if implemented in western countries, would result in more than USD 250 billion to USD300 billion equivalent in procurement value.

Let me cite an example, the service of one French engineer from Astom (my ex-employer) to our client in Malaysia cost USD1000 per day plus cost of food, transport and accommodation, and that was 25 years ago. I don't have current figure since I left them long time ago but you can imagine what is the rate they would charge today.

And I came across the scale of China's defence companies' engineers salaries scales just a week or two ago in CJDBY which states their salaries plus allowances ranged from 5000 Yuan plus onwards which is less than USD 1000 per month, while senior engineers could earned up to 3 or 4 times more. This is still way below what the Western engineers are earning.

And also, the salaries of PLA servicemen against that of US and other Western countries. Also the costs of food and others.

I don't think we are talkng strictly about wages, food. We are talking about increasing budget to:

1. increase military r&d
2. make more weapons and improve on what China already has.
3. plus of course an increase in salary so they can attract more qualify chinese to join the military.

 

[dray]

Have Money, Will Spend. Their money, their thought!!. But one thing is certain, money does not stay with one for long!!

Yes, but such a stance has many unwanted consequences:

1. It will disrupt the balance of power & security of this region.
2. It may kick start an arms race which may result into massive weaponization of the entire region.
3. It will raise doubts & suspicion on China's actual intent behind such massive increase of military capabilities.
4. It may result into many new defence alliances and will increase US presence in this region.

 

[bolo]

1.3% of GDP is too low.