Chinese military expenditure?

What is the budget of the PLA? I have seen many different figures on how much does the PLA spend. The official military budget of China in 2005 stands at $29.9 billion USD, which is slightly more than South Korea's budget and slightly less than Saudi Arabia's. But is that the actual figure? Of course I heard the US Department of Defense claims China spend as much as $90 billion USD on its military, and I certainly think that's a great exaggeration by DOD; however, I do believe the PLA is spending more money than Saudi Arabia, judging from its sheer size. So what's the best estimation of China's military expenditure?

There is no unbiased answer to this question because those who know certainly aren't telling. Also, depends on what you count into a military budget.

There's also the problem of taking into account matters like PPP, especially when you're trying to compare personnel upkeep. And then there's the issue of secret R&D projects.

Guestimate: 3-4% of GDP, rising in line with GDP

If 2.5% - 3% of GDP is the normal budget level for military expenditure for most countries, then this would put the PLA's 2006 based budget at between US$60 and $70 Billion. GDP is not however the same as Govt Revenue, so a second calculation based on state Tax and Investment yeilds need to be done to find a better indicator as to how high a priority Military spending is in terms of its percentage of the Finance Ministry Budget.

There's also the problem of taking into account matters like PPP, especially when you're trying to compare personnel upkeep. And then there's the issue of secret R&D projects.

Saudi Arabia import much of it hardware, hence the high expenses.

China build most of its own parts. roughly the difference i know of is imported military hardware and R&D is not part of the china budget figure. then there are issue with paramilitary, which isn't part of military budget in US but is included in Chinese figure... so it is kind of confusing to compare. are we going by how US count it's expenses? cause iraq has a seperate "reconstruction" budget.... i gave up trying to compare apples for apples and just focus on what they have.

expenses is not a good benchmark of military strength, since certain countries pay more for lesser product (like Saudi Arabia hardware are same price but crippled in range!)

imo budget is only useful for identifying the economic impact of the military... what do you think?