1999-2013 China GDP & Military spending stats

[adeptitus]

I saw this chart earlier this week:

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For those who cannot read Chinese, from top to bottom:
GDP
Revenue (government tax revenue)
Military expenditure
Military expenditure as % of government revenue
Military expenditure as % of GDP


So... if I'm reading the numbers correctly, from 1999 to 2013, China's GDP grew 6.3 times, military spending grew 6.7 times, but government tax revenue grew 11.3 times??

 

[SampanViking]

I saw this chart earlier this week:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

For those who cannot read Chinese, from top to bottom:
GDP
Revenue (government tax revenue)
Military expenditure
Military expenditure as % of government revenue
Military expenditure as % of GDP


So... if I'm reading the numbers correctly, from 1999 to 2013, China's GDP grew 6.3 times, military spending grew 6.7 times, but government tax revenue grew 11.3 times??

Its not that surprising. As you build a modern economy you bring a large number of people from a subsistence and barter economy into a cash economy as they become more wealthy. This simply means that a lot of new people are introduced into the tax system as net payers.