9 Although such methodologies had shortcomings, a discussion of them should shed light on military expenditures in totalitarian societies. 8 Barry Watts, former director of Program Analysis and Evaluation at the Pentagon, describes making different attempts to estimate Soviet defense spending as one of the core tasks necessary to develop net assessments outlining the comparative advantages of different countries. There were even so-called unconventional approaches that used industrial production data and other inputs to present a more precise estimate of the Soviet defense burden. 7 Multiple organizations studied and made informed judgments on how the Soviet defense budget was composed and how it compared with the U.S. Noel Firth and James Noren, two former Central Intelligence Agency analysts, have detailed the robust internal debates that took place in the Federal Government on how to account and estimate the Soviet defense budget during the Cold War. attempts to understand Chinese military expenditures are clearly still in their infancy. When compared with the effort dedicated to understanding Soviet military expenditures, current U.S. But persistent gaps in Western understanding of Chinese military expenditures and its defense budget-the inputs that enable PLA modernization processes-remain. 6 Because there is no documented internal domestic clamor for more data on the Chinese defense budget, however, international actors will have to produce the information. National Defense Strategy describes a multipronged approach to exercising power and influence in the Indo-Pacific region, stating that “China is leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce neighboring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to advantage.” 5 Much has been written and documented about the military modernization on which the CCP has embarked. 3 Furthermore, the Joseph Biden administration acknowledges the growing aggression of the PRC. 2 In its 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy, the Federal Government recognized and prioritized the threat China poses. This lack of transparency would be simply a nuisance if the CCP did not represent a fundamental challenge to the current rules-based international order and, increasingly, a rival to the United States. This figure falls short of what other countries release publicly and does not tell the whole story or reveal the whole amount that is dedicated to national defense. 1 When it comes to disclosing to the international community its military expenditures, CCP leadership announces a single figure on its defense budget annually. Such murkiness is expected: The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) constructed a notoriously ambiguous government in which members manipulate statistics and facts to fit its desired narrative. In the case of the PRC, many unknowns remain regarding the cost of the PLA. The cost of a military for a society is not only a theoretical question it also reveals part of the relative importance of the military in that society. This article discusses the current knowledge of how much funding is available for the PLA and the gaps in that knowledge, some solutions that attempted to close these gaps, and some areas prime for further development. It is therefore imperative for us to understand PLA funding to enhance our understanding of the role of the military instrument in PRC foreign policy. The People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) presents the most significant military challenge to the United States and its allies.
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