From AP:
China’s defense spending is on track to reach $360 billion a year by 2020 if annual increases continue at their current pace, an analyst with defense consultancy Jane’s said Friday.
That figure is still dwarfed by U.S. military spending, which amounted to $547 billion last year, but would represent a significant increase over Beijing’s current official budget of about $59 billion.
China’s publicly announced spending is roughly on a level with total military expenditure by Britain last year, and slightly higher than that of France. Some analysts believe total spending may actually be significantly higher because the official budget doesn’t include funding for weapons programs.
