December.27 (China Military News cited from Global Times) — China’s military strength ranks second in the world in terms of expenditure, the number of troops and weaponry, according to a report released Thursday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The data provokes many questions from scholars and the public, though the government think tank emphasized the ranking was just based on selected factors and is not a comparison of real military power of the concerned countries.

The fleet of Chinese Navy’s 4 Project 956 Sovremenny class destroyers

The US, Japan and Germany rank as the top three in terms of comprehensive national strength and China is in seventh place, according to the Report on Comprehensive National Power Assessment, which evaluated the militaries of 11 countries, including seven Western countries and Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRICs.

The evaluation index includes five direct constituent elements – territory and natural resources, population, economy, military and science and technology – and four influencing factors – social development, sustainability, security and domestic politics and international contributions, it said.

KJ-2000 and KJ-200 AWACS aircrafts displayed in one Airport

To the surprise of many, China’s military power ranks second, with a total score of 33.3, behind the US, which scores 90.08, and just ahead of Russia, with 31.08.
“The high rank of China is mainly because it gets a higher score in terms of troop numbers and equipment,” the report said.

The Human Development Report 2007-2008, released by the UN, showed that the size of China’s military is the largest in the world, with 2.25 million troops, far more than the US’ 1.5 million.

The report cites Wikipedia as saying, China’s weaponry ranks third worldwide in terms of amount of equipment, with 240 nuclear weapons, 7,580 tanks, 1,700 fighter planes, 144 naval ships, and eight nuclear submarines, far less than that of Russia, which tops the list with 13,000 nuclear weapons and 22,800 tanks.

There was much speculation about China’s military expenditure, with foreign institutes giving much higher estimates. The report, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics, said China’s spending last year was $60.9 billion, below that of the US, France and the UK.

Ground Staffs’ Maintenance of PLA Air Force J-8D Fighter

Li Shaojun, a researcher with the CASS, told the Global Times that the US’ $607 billion expenditure last year was 132 percent higher than that of the other 10 countries studied.

Military expert Song Xiaojun said the military ranking, based on three indexes, is not persuasive as China’s military power is far from being in second place.

“China’s defense construction still falls behind the development of the national economy.” Song said. “If we are the second power, does it mean there is no need for us to develop our economy?”

Xu Guangyu, a member of the government-backed China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, expressed reservations toward the ranking as he thinks it should be evaluated historically and dynamically, instead of only using static data such as current military expenditure.

The missile reload of “RIF” air defense system of Type 051C Destroyer

“It’s more reasonable to put China after Russia,” General Xu said.

The report gives 60 percent weight to military expenditure and 20 percent to the number of troops and weaponry.

The idea is echoed by Ni Lexiong, a professor in the Politics Department of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, who pointed to the problem of the abuse of military spending.

“If the expenditure was all used to boost China’s military strength, it could be taken as a reliable factor to evaluate China’s military status,” Ni said, adding that the indexes such as the number of troops and weapons should only be used for ancient times, as they are unreliable and inefficient for the evaluation of modern military strength.

According to the report, the quality of weaponry owned by the 11 nations is not accounted for, as it is impossible to evaluate, though the report admits that there is a big difference in terms of performance.

“The more rational ranking should include indexes such as air assault capacity, military soft power and military theory,” Ni said.

A poll Thursday on huanqiu.com showed that 85.2 percent of nearly 1,800 participants believed the report overestimated China’s military strength, while only 12 percent agreed with the ranking. 43.1 percent supported the seventh-place ranking of China’s comprehensive national strength, with 35.6 percent and 21.3 percent saying it is higher or lower, respectively.

Li Shaojun, also a co-author of the military part of the report, conceded that he is aware that the result will be met with many challenges from the public, but that an explanation has been given as to how the evaluation was carried out.

“It is just the result of a study which has some strategic value. But it can’t be used to fit the reality,” Li said.

Gao Hua, a deputy researcher with the CASS who also participated in the study, stressed that the report does not intend to draw a conclusion on how China’s military power should be ranked globally. Instead, it attempts to explore the relevance between increasing military expenditure and the global financial downturn.