To tell you the truth, the transparency of China's military expenditure is very high in the world. The so-called "hidden military expenditure" is definitely more in the United States than in China, while the military expenditure published by China is much less. For example, China's manned spaceflight project is spent on military expenditure, while the space expenditure in the United States is always accounted for by NASA. Another example is the expenditure on nuclear weapons and nuclear power facilities in the United States, which are all accounted for by the Department of Energy. Intelligence is a secret expense. The costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply listed separately, but research institutions usually help them count them in.
In some western countries, there are still some "conventions", such as the resettlement expenses of retired soldiers, the medical pension expenses of disabled and dead soldiers, which are counted as social welfare, and the salaries of civilian soldiers are counted as government employees or civil servants' expenses. Paramilitary forces (similar to the armed police in China and the National Guard in the United States) are counted as police or security forces. These expenses will be counted as civilian expenses. At the same time, many projects related to national defense, such as roads, airports and communication facilities with national defense standards, are not included in military expenditure.
The increase in China's military expenditure this year is mainly used in several aspects. First, it gives soldiers a salary increase. Second, pay for the resettlement and demobilization of a large number of disarmament veterans. Third, a large number of national defense projects and dual-use projects have been built. Fourth, a large number of replacement and reduction of old equipment. Fifth, improve the intensity and level of training. The money for buying advanced aircraft is not too much. For the whole army, it is astronomical to replace the 7-type new military uniform and the 95-type rifle.
the situation in India is unknown. However, there are several problems that India needs to pay attention to.
India is not a legal nuclear country, and its nuclear weapons development and nuclear material production will not be listed. Almost all of its space technology is imported from abroad in the name of civilian technology, and its missile projects will not be listed aboveboard.
it uses a large number of paramilitary forces with various names, and most of their expenses will not be included in the military expenditure.
There are a lot of anti-government armed forces in India, and most of the anti-bandits operations that have lasted for decades are carried out by paramilitary forces. Does this expenditure count as social security expenditure or military expenditure?
On the other hand, India's expenditure on the basic equipment of the army is very poor, such as rifles, artillery, ammunition, clothing and so on, which are very backward, and even the equipment during World War II is still in use. Moreover, the basic national defense facilities can't keep up, and there are problems in military training and equipment maintenance. Their money is concentrated on buying sophisticated weapons.
the third aspect. There are many fishing projects for equipment procurement in India, and a project is often delayed for many years. It is not surprising that the money budgeted for three years cannot be spent for ten years. For example, India's purchase plan for 126 "advanced medium fighters" started bidding in January 25, and it was originally planned to sign the contract in six weeks. As a result, six years have passed, and there is no more. Now there is news that it will be delayed until the end of the year. No one knows whether it will be delayed for another few years.