The latest national defense White Paper from China sets a three-step course on the road to modernization, culminating in the middle of the century with “building informationalized armed forces and being capably of winning informationalized wars.” The paper states that China “will not engage in any arms race or pose a military threat to any other country.” China also maintains that its defense expenditures, as a share of its Gross Domestic Product, are far less than that of other major countries. Of course, Western defense analysts believe that China regularly understates its defense expenditures, and the latest Pentagon report indicated China’s aim is extending beyond its borders.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
