China’s defense budget has grown 850 per cent in the last 20 years from $20 billion to $170 billion in 2018, a top Pentagon official told lawmakers on Thursday.
China possesses one of the largest militaries in the world. It continues to add to its capabilities and is increasingly provocative, such as its activities in the South China Sea and in Africa, where China established its first overseas base ever in Djibouti in 2017, said Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John C Rood.
“China’s official defense budget has grown 850 per cent over the past 20 years from $20 billion to $170 billion in 2018,” Rood said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He also noted that the real figures are significantly higher than China’s official budget.
China, Rood said, has also sought to spend funding in ways that are specifically targeted at key US military advantages with new capabilities in such areas as space, cyber, electronic warfare, undersea warfare, fighter aircraft, bombers equipped with long range cruise missiles, and other anti-access, area denial (A2AD) capabilities.
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