World's biggest defence budgets

[Chogy]

Umm... did you read my post, and the post I was replying to?

There was no mention of "dominance in Asia"... or "whipping Thai people". You have quite an active imagination though.

I was referring to America's role as the "superpower" and as the "world policeman". I think the USA is very welcome to keep those roles. If they want to use their own money/debt to assume this burden, then that is fantastic.

I shouldn't have quoted you, my post was more generalized. As for TEAM AMERICA, WORLD POLICE, the job sucks, and I want it to end. It is a no-win role.

 

[truthseeker2010]

no one knows the exact defence figures of any country and they are speculative, in case of china most thinks that it is underestimated given the size of the force.
As far as dominance is concerned US is the leader with presence in two countries, and most of the continents energy resources end up in US, and thats the hot spot.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I shouldn't have quoted you, my post was more generalized. As for TEAM AMERICA, WORLD POLICE, the job sucks, and I want it to end. It is a no-win role.

I agree with that logic.

As a Chinese person however, I'm sure you can understand why I would prefer America to keep that role.

My nightmare, is that one day in the future, some people may look to China to fulfill the role of "superpower". No thank you.

Maybe the UN can take over that job.

 

[rcrmj]

We will never know China real budget, can be anything from 70billion to 100billion.

China is not transparent unlike other nations when it come to figures.

because the media told you so, if u dont trust figures from china then u shouldnt trust figures from any other countries.

 

[ChinaToday]

officially is 91 billion unofficially no body knows

 

[Nomenclature]

Some people and governments keep on saying Chinese military spending is not transparent. Guess what? I have never read any estimate on so-called 'real Chinese defense spending' with a clear explanation of the methodology they used to arrive at their estimation nor a clear breakdown of what their alleged 'real Chinese defense spending' consist of.

What about being transparent yourself before accusing others?

 

[gambit]

I agree with that logic.

As a Chinese person however, I'm sure you can understand why I would prefer America to keep that role.

My nightmare, is that one day in the future, some people may look to China to fulfill the role of "superpower". No thank you.

Maybe the UN can take over that job.

Not possible...Yet. Whenever there is a 'law' or at least a consensus among a group of leaders, there has to be a credible show of arms to enforce compliance of said 'law' or consensus of what needs to be done, and to punish violations of the same. The UN has no such credible force. For example...Jurisdictions should not cross city or county borders. If there is a need, then there should be a police force whose authority will override all cities and counties and that would be the American FBI or equivalents in other countries. Those government agents will have their loyalties focused on the federal government, not the local constabulates.

Currently...The UN does not have any military force whose members' allegiances are not focused on the UN. If the UN need a military force to do something in any parts of the world, the UN Secretary must appeal to member nations to contribute, anything from manpower to hardware, to constitute this force and to appoint a commander whose personality and experience must be approved by those members. In short, if there is to be a true 'global policeman' there has to be a true global government whose laws and authority override national borders and allegiances. We know that is not going to happen in our lifetimes or even in our grandchildren's lifetimes.

So what happens is that the world is left with superpowers' desires and interests challenging each other's desires and interests. Alliances are formed and usually needed to be formed so less powerful countries can pool their resources to challenge those superpowers. Another effect is called 'bandwagoning' where less powerful countries allied themselves to those superpowers to share the benefits of achieving the same desires and protecting the same interests.

Like it or not, if China is going assert herself, first in Asia and later on the global stage, as if not already, then by virtue of claiming that increased influential role, less powerful countries who shares the same desires and interests of China will 'bandwagon' themselves towards China and the burden of leadership will fall upon China. Benefits are greater when there is a group effort but risks would also be greater as well.

 

[below_freezing]

I fail to understand U.S. "dominance in Asia." What is the U.S. doing there that makes it "dominant"? Do we have slavemasters whipping the backs of Thai workers shrieking "MORE RICE! MORE RICE!" Are we mining in the Himalayas? Stealing oil from the East Indies?

Well, enslaving Filipinos and having extraterritorial rights for soldiers of the occupation in South Korea and Japan is a start.

Also sailing ships into other country's territorial waters as a blatant threat is also kind of a way of estabilishing dominance, like in Taiwan Strait 1996 and Yellow Sea 2010.

Another threat is the overt threat to nuke China in 1952, the use of biochemical weapons in Korea and Vietnam, an unfair trade regime that essentially enslaves many Asian countries to the US, and the continued domination of the petrodollar that allows the US to trade numbers on a computer, not even paper, for real products. I wouldn't even be so angry if the US could pay back debts in physical dollars. At least then you can shred the paper and reprocess it into pulp.

 

[ephone]

China has really no interest in being world policemen. Whoever wants that job can challenge U.S. for that job.

We hand off for that.

It is the Economy..!!! Which will turn the table in future and you know economy and defence spending are like parallel lines...And you can't deny this...

 

[cross1993]

then what about post #6?

What is wrong with that? Do you know that China-congressional held a meeting recently?

 

[casual]

wow china is only spending 1.5% gdp on defense. that's like really small

 

[cross1993]

Does USA think that the Chinese want to become a new World-Police? What a joke. In China, “superpower” and "World-Police" is a derogatory term.
Our arms-dealers can not manipulate the political. We do not like World-Police this post, if USA like that, go on plz.

China just want USA to leave East Asia. There are two reasons:

1# Our economy is concentrated in the southeast coastal, they was threatened by the USA Guam-bases. So Chinese hope that the USA military withdrew to Hawaii, allow the Western Pacific become a Sino-US strategic buffer.
Trust comes from a sense of security. USA should respect China's security needs.

2# Historically, China has been the leading country in East Asia.
If you look at history, You will find that any Chinese govt will never give up the right. USA should respect China's history needs.

China will not a direct war with the USA, the two countries have many economic ties, we can not afford to lose each other. And war between two nuclear powers is stupid.
China will only continue to increase military spending, reduce USA national strength through the arms race, and waiting for the Americans to leave.

 

[below_freezing]

China will not have a direct war with the US but the US may have a direct war with China to remove its internal problems.

The only way to prevent that is to show our nuclear power. The US is, and has always, considered nuclear power to be a legitimate weapon of war.

So the answer is to remind them that it is not.

Notice how the far right fascist Wall Street regime goes quiet every time Shenzhou lands. They know, if we can orbit a man in space, we can orbit a nuke, and if we can target a man in space to where we want on earth, we can target a nuke in space to where we want on earth.

In fact, we can launch a MIRV bus into a polar orbit and reenter it from the south of US, avoiding its anti-missile defense and wiping out most of the cities on its eastern coast.

 

[JayAtl]

I fail to understand U.S. "dominance in Asia." What is the U.S. doing there that makes it "dominant"? Do we have slavemasters whipping the backs of Thai workers shrieking "MORE RICE! MORE RICE!" Are we mining in the Himalayas? Stealing oil from the East Indies?

It's not negative to say so- its strategic military dominance... US ain't surrounding China for no reason.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

What is wrong with that? Do you know that China-congressional held a meeting recently?

i am asking are you going to hike the budget to 91billion or not ?