China's expenditure on military was three times more than India last year, but the share of its defence spending in GDP was less than India's, Union Minister Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday, 25 July.
While no official data relating to China's annual defence budget is available, as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database, China's military expenditure was $2,28,230 million in 2017 while that of India stood at $63,923 million that year, Bhamre said in the Lok Sabha.
In 2016, China spent $2,16,031 million and India's defence spending was $56,637 million in that year, he said during Question Hour.
In 2017, India had spent 2.5 percent of its GDP on the military, while China had spent 1.9 percent of the GDP in military, the minister of state for defence said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)