Niall McCarthy
China has celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule by holding a massive military parade in central Beijing. Even though the events have been overshadowed by months of protests in Hong Kong, the parade enabled the authorities to showcase the country's technological achievements and its steady rise to superpower status. At least 15,000 troops marched through Tiananmen Square, observed by leaders from China's past and present. They were accompanied by nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles and lines of rumbling main battle tanks along with flyovers by fighter jets and helicopters.
BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 01: Chinese soldiers sit atop tanks as they drive in a parade to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 2019 in Beijing, China. (Photo byGETTY IMAGES
In recent years, China has ratcheted up investment in its armed forces, aiming to replace its Soviet-era equipment and transform it into a state-of-the-art military by 2049. That push for modernization occurred during a period when the United States was mired in two bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even though no country comes close to matching America's $649 billion outlay on defence in 2018 (China spent $250 billion), Beijing had the highest increase in military expenditure by far over the past decade, according to Sipri data.
Between 2009 and 2018, China's military expenditure increased 83% and the results of that drastic rise were on display for the world to see in Beijing today. By comparison, serial military shoppers Saudi Arabia "only" increased their defense spending by 28% during the same period. Russia is also in the midst of a modernization drive and Moscow's military expenditure has gone up 27% since 2009. As for the United States, its military spending fell 17% between 2009 and 2018, a downward trend President Trump is keen to change amid the ongoing military overhauls being carried out by both China and Russia.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
% change in military spending among major powers between 2009 and 2018. STATISTA
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