The myth of China’s military might

[rangerrebew]

Analysis
The myth of China’s military might
Beijing's defence budget doesn't tell the whole story
BY EDWARD LUTTWAK
 

Professor Edward Luttwak is a strategist and historian known for his works on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations.

ELuttwak
March 7, 2023
 

The day after Li Keqiang, China’s departing Prime Minister and the last of Beijing’s moderates, called for more market liberalisation to reach this year’s 5% growth target, Xi Jinping responded by announcing a muscle-flexing 7.2% increase in China’s defence spending. That is certainly consistent with Xi’s truculent stance (he replied to Nancy Pelosi’s recent Taiwan visit with a series of ballistic missile launches), and with his official promise to the Communist Party that China will become the world’s dominant power by 2049. But what do those percentages actually mean?

The declared total of China’s newly increased defence budget at 1.56 trillion yuan amounts to $230 billion, according to the current exchange rate. If that were the case, it would mean that China is falling further behind the United States, whose own fiscal 2023 defence spending is increasing to $797 billion (and actually more, since that figure does not include its funding for military construction or the added help to Ukraine).
 
China’s own figure is also generally assumed by experts to be greatly understated — not by fiddling the numbers one by one, but rather by wholesale exclusions, such as the attribution of research-and-development spending to civilian budgets. Even if a commando team of elite forensic accountants were sent into action to uncover China’s actual defence spending, with another team dispatched to determine what’s missing from the US budget, we would still only have a very loose indication of how much actual military strength China and the United States hope to add.

https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-myth-of-chinas-military-might/

[sneakypete]

China's "military might" is based entirely  on the fact they have more soldiers than  we have bullets to shoot them with.

[Smokin Joe]

China's "military might" is based entirely  on the fact they have more soldiers than  we have bullets to shoot them with.

Keep in mind, that China does not have to do all the primary research into weapons systems, they just steal/buy ours. This is why the general contents of Bidens's truckloads of classified documents just might be relevant.  What their 'students' have not stolen, may well have been just sold to them--by those in our own Government.

And beyond doubt, there are members of the Uniparty who are firmly behind all this, and fervently hoping for some sort of NWO before their treason is discovered.

This translates to huge savings in developing weapons programs, not to mention saving a lot of time. Beyond that, they have the industrial capability that brings to mind the concept that 'quantity has a quality all its own'.

As you pointed out, and when my father fought them in Korea, the question was one of if there was enough ammo to keep them at bay, even after policing up every cartridge from those who were dead or too wounded to fight.