Journal Article - The China Quarterly

Demystifying China's Defense Spending: Less Mysterious in the Aggregate

| December 2013

Abstract

China's limited transparency concerning its defence spending harms strategic trust, but foreign analysts often lose sight of important realities. Specific details remain unclear, but China's defence spending overall is no mystery — it supports PLA modernization and personnel development as well as its announced objectives of securing China's homeland and asserting control over contested territorial and maritime claims, with a focus on the Near Seas (the Yellow, East, and South China seas). This article offers greater context and perspective for Chinese and Western discussions of China's rise and concomitant military build-up through a nuanced and comprehensive assessment of its defence spending and military transparency.

Full text available here (log in may be required): http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9113288

Want to Read More?

The full text of this publication is available via the original publication source.
Read Full Article
For more information on this publication: Please contact International Security
For Academic Citation: Liff, Adam P. and Andrew S. Erickson. “Demystifying China's Defense Spending: Less Mysterious in the Aggregate.” The China Quarterly, vol. 216. (December 2013):
805-830
.

The Authors

Andrew S. Erickson

Recommended
In the Spotlight
RSS
While offsets are imperfect, they may be necessary to reach ambitious short-term environmental goals.
More on Energy
Danielle F. Jung and Dara Kay Cohen argue that lynching emerges when neither the state nor its challengers have a monopoly over legitimate authority.
More on International Security
Western models partly inspired the creation of Special Operation Command and Military Police and the development of private military companies.
More from Russia Matters
Most Viewed

Tags