China: March 8, 2002

Archives

China is increasing it's military budget another 17.6 percent in 2002 and expects to maintain annual increases of about 15 percent through 2005. The 2002 defense spending will be $20 billion, which will reach $30 billion by 2005. This would still be less than ten percent of the U.S. defense budget. A lot of the additional spending is going into more modern weapons (often bought from Russia.) The government spending deficit in 2001 was $37 billion. The current legislative session (a rubber stamp operation, but an occasion for the leadership to make major announcements) admitted that corruption among Communist part officials was a serious problem. If corruption is not reduced, it was pointed out, chaos could follow. Any student of Chinese history would recognize the truth in that.