Cost!

This is coolbert:

From an earlier intelligence report: [thanks to Harry - - http://www.sharkhunters.com]

"China spends in excess of $800 billion per year on weaponry"

And the response of J. Bolton:

"$800 billion would be more than half their total economy, so that has to be exaggerated ten-fold at least. They are making double-digit increases in military expenditures every year."

Well, $800 billion per year does seem a lot. Almost TWICE of what the U.S. currently spends YEARLY on national defense.

What is the truth:

Consider the wiki entry on Chinese military expenditures:

"Military budget of the People's Republic of China"

"SIPRI, RAND, the CIA and the DIA estimated the budget at between US$30 and US$65 billion. In terms of purchasing power parity, or the relative purchasing strength of the expenditure, the SIPRI estimate is as high as US$140 billion."

"The Chinese government's published budget was less than US$25 billion."

"The 2007 US Department of Defense annual report to Congress on China's military strength offered several estimates of actual 2007 Chinese military spending. In terms of the prevailing exchange rate, DIA estimates fall between US$85 and US$125 billion."

So, J. Bolton and the ten-fold exaggeration would seem to be pretty much right on!!

Consider this, however, from the wiki entry:

"The official military budget which China and Russia announced does not include spending on nuclear weapons, cruise missile development, and fighter development. These are categorized under the Science/Space development budget. Spending on training are categorized under the Education budget, and veteran pensions are categorized under the Welfare budget. As the result China and Russia's actual military expenditure may be more than 3 times as much as the official military budget."

Consider this too from the book by Victor Suvorov, "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence": [written in 1984]

"Theoretically the Soviet Union spends, in the interests of defence, the improbably small sum of nineteen billion dollars a year . . . The budgets of the remaining twelve ministries which produce armaments are kept secret . . . the Ministry of Defence does not buy; it receives the armaments necessary to it . . . the price of [a] ship is paid to the Ministry of Shipbuilding . . . The same thing is true of aircraft, tanks, rockets, nuclear bombs, military electronics, every item of hardware."

The Chinese - - budget for military hardware - - on the same lines as the Soviet did!!?? The announced cost is small compared with the actual cost! Hidden items not tabulated as would be with the budget of a western nation! $800 billion still to high however!

This SIPRI was a new one on me. Swedish. Peace organization. International. It must be right. Those groups are NEVER wrong!

coolbert.