[olympus]

This is a sign that Xi Jinping wants to become a dictator, and it concerns other countries if a giant country like China with a massive military is controlled by a dictator with unlimited power. China has every right to have a large military to defend itself, but a dictator might use the military to be aggressive to other countries.

China's GDP is several times bigger[1] than Vietnam, Korea, India, and Singapore, so spending a smaller percentage is still a larger absolute amount. Even India, the closest competitor that you listed is only 1/5 as big by GDP, and in absolute terms has a smaller military.

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?order=wb...

[Dolores12]

Go check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasties_in_Chinese_history

China has always been ruled by dynasties. I don't see any specific reason why it should change under Xi. It is a wet dream of USA to bring instability to China to weaken rising dragon.

[darawk]

Who cares about history? Europe was ruled by monarchies until it switched to democracy, for the better. China should do the same.

[Dolores12]

What make you think that being under monarchy Europe would yield different result? China is a great example of being a communist state where people's life is getting better and better. Political stability is a key to economic growth.

[darawk]

China is only growing economically to the extent that it's relaxed its socialist, authoritarian policies. As soon as it reasserts them, all that growth will go away. The fact that people's lives are improving is not sufficient evidence that the government is benevolent.

There is only one thing that reliably predicts human behavior: incentives. The incentives of the communist party are much more weakly aligned with the welfare of their people than those in democratic countries. It's as simple as that.

[Dolores12]

I must be missing something, top reply in this post shows exactly opposite - there is no relaxation of authoritarian policies. They tighten freedoms to be stable.

[darawk]

Relative to say, the 1980s, China is less authoritarian. I'm not in any way excusing or diminishing their authoritarianness , btw. I find it truly frightening, and reprehensible. However, what i'm worried about is that they've found a way to thread the needle such that they may maintain most of their authoritarian surveillance state, while also getting solid economic growth.

In the past, in order to develop a modern economy, it's been necessary for authoritarian states to relax their grip substantially. China may have found a path forward that allows them to relax substantially less than in the past, and that deeply concerns me, because it may mean that the liberalizing effects of progress are muted in that part of the world - and eventually, maybe the rest.

[Slansitartop]

> China has always been ruled by dynasties.

The exact same thing was true of the West until about 100 years ago.

[Dolores12]

China is a way older than Europe. After all this damage Europe did to China(think Opium wars) i am happy to see China found its OWN way to success. And being one of the greatest economy in the world, why would it even listen to the West?