China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 2012

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Not only that .. in general, the living cost in China is much lower than in the US.

You could get a very decent meal for 10 yuan (~$1.5) while in the US $1.5 would give you practically nothing

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Jeff Head said:

Yes, but given the amount of actual work that China gets for its dollars...ie. it does not have huge bureaucracies liks OSHA, or Union Labor, or all of the myriad of legal strongs attached to every worker...then the scales are evened up some. Not all the way, but some.

No need in China to hold a pregnant woman's job for a year after she has the baby if she claims that level of maternity leave, no need for having to hold a job, or make a job for someone who becomes completely disabled even if not work related. China probably is not hiring to social quotas and giving such quotas disproportinate weight against their ability to actually do the job so that their design and manufacturing is full of people who have to be shuffled off to the side and paid because of the labor laws, but who are not producing anything.

All of this probably more than halves the US's ability to get the kind of productivity out of its work force.

Do not get me wrong, safety and health concern have their place, as does non-discrimination...but they have gone way beyond that in the United Stated to the point where those good tools, have turned into unwieldy burdens and bureacracies that completely weigh the system down.

$118 Billin in China probably buys close to $300 billion in the States is my guess.

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When adjusted for PPP, the $300 billion will be closer to $450 billion. As most of the weapons purchased are from domestic sources, the PPP ranking will be closer to the true budget than the nominal ranking.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

First you have to take into account that the numbers below exludes the off balance sheet spending for the military of both countries. But for the sake of argument we will just take the official figures for what it is.

First lets compare the sizes of the US military and the PLA. The US military as it now stands is about 1,43 million man strong which includes the US coast guard and the PLA based on the recently released white paper is 1,48 million man strong and if you add the second artillery corps that are not included in the numbers then you get a number of about 1,58 million man strong. The base budget of the US military is 554,2 billion $ for 2013 (that excludes the Afghan war costs) and for the PLA its 115,7 billion $ for 2013. The reserve forces are about 800000 men each.

So on average the US spends about 387553 $ for every active soldier in the military and China spends 73228 $ per active soldier and that means that the US is spending 5,3x more per active soldier then China.

But here comes the tricky part the per capita in come of the US is about 8,2x higher than in China and China doesn't have overseas operations except for anti piracy missions in the Indian Ocean. While the US has about a 1000 military bases all over the world and spread over more than 100 nations. Maintaining that infrastructure cost quite a bit of money. And the wages for the average Chinese officer and soldier is many times lower than that of the US military. And now that the PLA is getting most of her weapons from domestic sources means that procurement costs for the PLA are also much lower.

But other costs for both the PLA and the US military remains the same like their imports of weapons and raw material that they use to make those weapons. The cost difference comes down to labour.

US military spending over the past few years have fallen to 4,1% of GDP and that of China's to 1,4% of GDP.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

jobjed said:

When adjusted for PPP, the $300 billion will be closer to $450 billion. As most of the weapons purchased are from domestic sources, the PPP ranking will be closer to the true budget than the nominal ranking.

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For China, yes. For India, no

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Actually I made a small mistake.

Chinese CENTRAL government spending is $1 trillion. Chinese central and local government spending is $2 trillion.

The US CENTRAL government spending is $3.5 trillion. US central and local government spending is $6.2 trillion. So I'm comparing central government spending only.

All figures are for 2012.

China has alot of wasteful spending with massive bureaucracies. This is why president Xi told the PLA to stop the wasteful spending so the money can be used efficiently as possible.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

LesAdieux said:

the interesting thing is the domestic security spending is higher than the defence budget.

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That because PRC fears it own citizens more than any threat coming outside the country.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Broccoli said:

That because PRC fears it own citizens more than any threat coming outside the country.

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Hmmm like the US does when it attacks and jails the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters?

When it spends billions on the Dept. of Homeland Security?

When it experienced blow back after sponsoring the Taliban vs the Soviet Union in Afghanistan?

Who fears whose people?

Or when it plots to kill and sometimes succeeds in assassinating various legitimately-elected but anti-US leaders - Castro, Chavez, Allende, Mohammad Mosaddegh, etc.

This is really too much hypocrisy on your part.

What the PRC fears are CIA sponsored plots like the 'color revolutions' it has been fomenting across the world, while the US gov't hasn't even jailed a single Wall Street banker.

C'mon, let's not kid ourselves.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Broccoli said:

That because PRC fears it own citizens more than any threat coming outside the country.

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Please spare us the empty amd disingenuous propaganda.

Things like the fire department and emergency rescue are all paid out of the domestic security and safety budget in China, as does the PAP, which is equivalent to the US national guard. If you were making a like for like comparison with what China lump into the domestic security and safety budget, few countries would have a bigger military budget than what they spend for 'domestic security'.

Hell, with the low military budgets of most Western European countries, I would not be surprised at all if their defence budget is bigger than just their domestic police agencies alone.

Re: China's defence budget for 2013: RMB 740 billion, $118 billion, up 10.7% over 20

Broccoli said:

That because PRC fears it own citizens more than any threat coming outside the country.

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Obviously, certainly country doesn't need accountability to its citizens at all, which is why things like the followings can happen.
[video=youtube;Dc8piTgjDHA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc8piTgjDHA[/video]