China, India Among Top 5 Defense Spenders in 2020

China and India have earned a place in the list of top countries with highest defense spending in the world this year.

While China lost the first spot to the United States with an annual spending of $237 billion, India bagged the fourth place with $67 billion.

The U.S. has a staggering budget of $750 billion, representing about 53.57% of the $1.4 trillion expenditure by top ten countries. France has the least budget among the overviewed countries at $41.5 billion, according to data compiled by Finbold.com.

Among other big ticket projects in the pipeline, China plans to build its third aircraft carrier and possibly, a carrier-based jet. It has also accelerated work on Type 075 helicopter carriers, developed a variety of guns and vehicles: tanks and air-dropped armored vehicles, built a number of jets such as J-20s and JF-17s, radars and combat drones.

In July, Beijing reportedly kick-started mass production of upgraded J-20B jets. Last week, Chinese media was abuzz with reports of another new two-seat variant of the Chengdu J-20 “Mighty Dragon,” which, if true, could be the world’s first two-seat stealth fighter. It also recently developed an “airfield killer" - an airborne munitions dispenser likely to be equipped on J-16 jet, JH-7 fighter bomber and H-6 bomber, that can release hundreds of submunitions.

Soured relations with India could be a possible reason behind China’s bagging of the top spot. Beijing’s tensions with the U.S. and its claim over most of resource-rich South China Sea, irking many South East Asian nations, may have also driven the spending.

China’s military expenditure has been marred with controversy with the government being accused of inconsistency in its reporting on defense spending. Furthermore, efforts to precisely single out Chinese military spending are further complicated by the lack of a detailed breakdown of expenditure on various military-related outlays. Additionally, foreign estimates of Chinese military spending suggest that actual spending may be higher.

In May, National’s People’s Congress (NPC) drew up a draft report which had set its 2020 defense budget at $178 billion.