The Political Economy of China's Defence Modernisation

World over, differences exist about the impact of military expenditure. While development economists consider excessive military expenditure as wastage, many defence economists have a different view. With the defence versus1 development debate unending, China makes a unique contribution. While China’s defence expenditure is not well known, the hinese experience shows that investments in development do provide an expanded economic base subsequently, which will take care of defence needs. Thus, in the last fifteen years, China’s high economic growth rate also coincided with high military expenditure. China’s experience carries an important lesson, i.e., defence and development cannot be treated differently. Rather, they conjoin in contemporary international relations discourse.