Is China already at war?

[Montmorency]

Horetore, the estimates of China's defense spending - not "budget" - from the 90's take that into account. Money spent is money spent, no matter how it is ordered on paper.

In fact, while China's military spendings as proportion of GDP fell precipitously in the 1980s and has been on a gradual downward trend ever since, China is spending 3-5x as much in real terms now (on the national military) than it was 15 years ago. So while much of it could be attributed to China raising spending to be in line with economic capacity, and a closer relationship between the officially-reported military budget and actual spending, it is quite clear that China is interested in establishing a credible military-response capacity for their near-abroad - and yes, this obviously means that along the line this will cause friction between the USA's and China's desire to exert influence or control over, for instance, key sea lanes of the Pacific. But nothing really out of line is going on here. Modernization is expensive, as the Chinese are restructuring their military into a more professional and better-equipped institution.

It is important, though, to refrain from handwaving real trends in order to bolster the point against their sensationalization; it stands on its own.