Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

China Outspends the U.S. on Defense? Here’s the Math.

Factoring in purchasing power and personnel costs leads to a surprising conclusion.

May 25, 2018 at 1:59 PM UTC

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

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When is $227 billion greater than $606 billion? When comparing Chinese defense spending to that of the U.S. — and if Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley is the one doing the math.

At a hearing last week, the ranking Democrat of the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said to Milley: “You tell us that one of our biggest threats, greatest enemies, is Russia; turns out we read recently that Russia spends about $80 billion a year on its military. So let me get this straight: We’re spending 600, 700 billion dollars against an enemy that’s spending $80 billion. Why is this even a contest?”