Chinese Military = USA Military? (and who is lobbying for peace)

 

Remember how the US spends more than ten times of everyone else combined on the military? Yeah that’s not true. US and Chinese military spending is roughly comparable.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) August 10, 2023

 

From Tony Wikrent's Weekend Wrap:

[TW: I’ve always thought the data on US military spending was problematic. My primary concern was that there was no way to factor out the bloat of privatization and rent-seeking by defense contractors. How many tens of billions is now spent in the military budget just for contractors to feed the troops — a job the troops largely used to do themselves?

Second, it’s useful to look at actual force comparisons. The [Chinese] PLA has 975,000 active duty troops and 4,800 main battle tanks compared to 463,000 and 5,500 MBTs for USA. USMC is another 181,000 active duty.

PLA Air Force has 400,000 active duty compared to USAF 329,000. PLA Air Force has 1,215 fighters and 120 bombers compared to USAF 1,511 fighters and 152 bombers.

PLA Navy has 260,000 compared to US Navy 350,000. PLA Navy has 623 ships; USN has 480 ships.

USA has large advantage in helicopters with over 4,000 compared to over 800 for China. And USA has massive advantage in strategic forces with 406 ICBMs and 336 SLBMs compared to 70 ICBMs and 39 SLBMs for China.

So, notwithstanding the large USA superiority in helicopters and nukes, the sizes of the armed forces of the two countries is roughly comparable, and would lead one to expect about similar expenditures. [According to figures I've seen published, USA spends three times the Chinese military budget.]

And keep in mind that the USA officer corps is quite aware of the severe disadvantages now imposed by privatization and contractor rent-seeking. The professional military journals have been for years regularly carrying articles considering how to deal with this problem. And I think the officer corps have implemented some solutions already: the USAF designed and built its next generation (6th generation) fighter prototype, while apparently keeping contractors at arms length. Development time was reportedly less than 24 months. That’s very, very impressive. I’m sure there are Army and Navy officers salivating at the prospect of doing the same thing for armored vehicles and ships.

On the other hand, there is a disturbingly large number of officers who hop on the contractor gravy train when they retire. But I would bet on the active duty officer corps – it’s their lives on the line. Lots of USA history has been rewritten to glorify the “free enterprise system,” including the industrial mobilization for World War 2. In short, there would not have been any Arsenal of Democracy if not for the work of George C, Marshall and other Army officers in the 1920s and 1930s, establishing the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and carefully surveying every production plant and factory in USA. See How America Saved the World: The Untold Story of U.S. Preparedness Between the World Wars, by Eric Hammel, and Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II, by Mark R. Wilson. ]

As far as peace goes (same source):

[TW: Rather than drifting towards war with China—and Russia—the United States should have agreed to cooperate with China in building the $50 trillion electricity transmission system that would have helped most of the poorer countries begin to develop, while also making a huge impact on reducing the problem of global climate change. China Unveils Proposal for $50 Trillion Global Electricity Network. China made the proposal in March 2016. China Wants to Build a $50 Trillion Global Wind & Solar Power Grid by 2050. ]