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Indeed it apparently costs close to 10% of their military budget just to respond to Chinese incursions. That's a heck of an incentive.

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That makes sense. Most of China's military policy seems to be economic. They make cheap subs for defense. US buys really expensive subs so they can attack. They spend some money their military and all the countries around them spend more money on their military. The other countries get poorer since military investment returns nothing so they have to borrow from China for critical infrastructure.

Not really, it is well alleged that CCP has a lot of military spending off the books. So the % figure of GDP we see might be higher.

Also, China's posturing is not just defensive but has an offensive side as well, as seen by the naval bases it has been trying to build across the world, even in Africa.

China has 1 small Navy base in Africa. China is a long way away from having a blue water navy. There is a lot of fear mongering in the US from Admirals that want a bigger Navy. China has never conducted a Naval operation.

As of today, Beijing has just one overseas military base in Djibouti – a country which also hosts American, French, Italian and Japanese military bases, some of which also host British, German and Spanish troops. https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/08/31/chinas-overseas-milita...

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