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China pays personnel way less and a huge chunk of that budget is personnel costs

In addition to lower personnel costs, their manufacturing industry is generally more efficient. The result is they get a lot more "bang for their buck" and you can't compare military spending just by looking at capital expenditure and currency conversion rates.

They also have different goals. America spends to maintain global hegemony, which means a huge fleet of aircraft carriers meant to operate around the world. China isn't (yet) spending in that way, they're a lot more focused on regional objectives.

oh they are definitely thinking about carriers - specifically ways to kill them

China has invested rather deeply in the space of carrier-killer missiles, which are cheap enough to build that it will always be possible and economical to sink any carrier, including Ford class

You're restating parent's point, which is that China invests in cheaper regional objectives.

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