Just when it looked we were all set to watch a major flare-up in the Middle East, our friends in the Far East decided that they couldn't leave well enough alone. China's military build-up is well know but not as many people under the might of India.
India tends to be associated with more metephysicla things such as Hinduism and yoga. In reality, India is a warrior nation with a very proud and ancienty legacy. Shaolin monks learned martial arts from India.
Here we have two ancient cultures still locked over Arunachal Pradesh (north of Tibet) and could end-up having a modern war over the territory. According to Al-Jazeera, here's what we are looking at:
HOW DO THEY MEASURE UP?
China:
•China says it is to increase its military spending by 11.2 per cent in 2012 - to almost $110bn
•It wants to double that amount by 2015
•China's official defence budget is the second-largest in the world, after the US
•But its actual spending, according to some experts, may be as much as 50 per cent higher because China does not account for its expenditure on nuclear development and other programmes such as space
India:
•India's military power pales in comparison with China. Yet, it too is significantly increasing spending on defence
•The 2012 Indian defence budget was set at $36bn - an 11.6 per cent rise on that of the previous year, but still less than half of that of China
•India has the tenth-largest military budget on the planet
•Fifty-one per cent of India's military budget is spent on maintaining its considerable land army of more than one million people
The one item left off? Nuclear weapons. India developed a nuclear capability and while China most likely has more, it still is a factor in this situation. While all eyes turn to Iran and Israel, one must wonder what will develop here in the next few years.
Al Jazeera English
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