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China is building its military on a 'scale not seen since WWII' and is on track to be able to invade Taiwan by 2027: US admiral (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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US Adm. John Aquilino said China's military is building up at a rate not seen since World War II.
That puts it on the path to meeting its goal of being ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, he said.
Aquilino, the outgoing head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, urged Washington to accelerate military development.

China's rapid military build-up is more expansive than anything seen since World War II, which means it's on track with its 2027 goal to be ready for a Taiwan invasion, said US Navy Adm. John Aquilino.

"All indications point to the PLA meeting President Xi Jinping's directive to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027," Aquilino wrote in a testimony to the US Armed Services House Committee.

"Furthermore, the PLA's actions indicate their ability to meet Xi's preferred timeline to unify Taiwan with mainland China by force if directed," added the admiral, the outgoing head of the US Indo-Pacific Command.

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[-] laverabe@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

All of those problems are because of political corruption, not raw money in/out. The US spends 3.5% of GDP on military, a lot, but not the most. Ranked #10 globally for military spending per GDP. Russia spends more than the US.

US is not Rome, at least not yet, or anytime in the immediate future.

[-] fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

That puts the Kremlin's war budget at 4.1%, but their 2024 budget puts military spending at 6% GDP. If they go over (like they did last year by 12%) it'll be even higher. Some analysts think there's even more hidden spending not being captured in these numbers.

[-] ferralcat 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't understand why you'd use GDP here. Is the assumption that, normalized for currency differences, all countries have the same gdp? That's not true.

I think argued earlier that tue money goes less far in the us because the cost of living is higher, so then normalize by cost or standard of living? But even that would assume that the average wage in the country is supporting the same lifestyle in both Russia and the us. Which it isn't. Some countries live "better" than others.

I think raw numbers are probably best here. 100 trillion in military spending is 100 trillion.

[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I’ll tell this to Terry, the homeless veteran who can’t afford insulin for his untreated diabetes from agent Orange that the U.S. is only ranked 10th in military spending per GDP and ask what he thinks.

The question should not be “how much?” But “why?” If it’s to preserve our “way of life.” Whose way of life? Certainly not Terry’s.

this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024

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