VOA Chinese, Mar 14, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20110314-India-Largest-Arms-Importer-117932394.html
My comment:
(a) The VOA report says "印度明年的国防预算为325亿美元，比两年前增加40%." I do not know about the second clause (though I have doubt, see the following Reuters report), but the number in the first clause is wrong.
(i) Sanjeev Miglani, With an eye on China, India steps up defence spending. Reuters, Feb 28, 2011.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/india-budget-military-idUSSGE71R02Y20110228
Quote from Reuters:
"Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, presenting the 2011-2012 budget to parliament, set the military budget at just over 1.64 trillion rupees ($36.28 billion), up from last year's 1.47 trillion rupees. Last year the increase was about 4 percent.
"More than 40 percent of the Indian defence budget for 2011 will be spent on capital expenditure, Mukherjee said, while the rest will go toward maintaining one of the world's largest standing armed forces.
(ii) Still India's defense budget pale compared with China's (both figures for next years)--and China reportedly conceals a large defense expense beyond the official figure. See quotation 2 next.
(b) The VOA report cites
Daniel Ten Kate, India Passes China as World’s Top Arms Importer, Sipri Says. Bloomberg, Mar 14, 2011.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-13/india-overtakes-china-as-world-s-top-arms-importer-sipri-says.html
There is no need to read the Bloomberg report, except the following.
Quote:
"India’s $1.3 trillion economy may expand by as much as 9.25 percent in the next financial year, the fastest pace since 2008, according to a Finance Ministry survey released last month.
"China plans to increase defense spending 12.7 percent this year to $91.5 billion.
Note: On Feb 14, 2011 Japan released its GDP for 2010 (China had released its own a month before), making it official that China had surpassed Japan as the second largest economy. The GDP for Japan and China were 5.474 and $5.8 trillion, respectively, at the end of 2010.
In other words, officially India's GDP is about 23% of China.
(c) After reading the VOA report, I wonder:
(i) Where is Taiwan--the perennial leading arms buyer?
(ii) What has Germany sold, now that I have not heard of it selling arms?
Paul Holtom, Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Mark Bromley, Pieter D. Wezeman and Siemon T. Wezeman, Trends in International Arms Transfer, 2010; SIPRI Fact Sheet. Siipri, March 2011.
http://books.sipri.org/files/FS/SIPRIFS1103.pdf
Note:
* All data in this year's fact sheet is 2006-2010 cumulative data, not a single year.
* Surprisingly, Taiwan is not in this fact sheet--except one mention: US sold arms to Taiwan. Page 2.
* The VOA report states "印度独占交易9% 超中韩巴."
What about the other three (again 2006-2010)?
Table 2--and Figure 2--shows top five recipients were India (share of global arms imports 9%), China(6), S Korea (6), Pakistan (5) and Greece (4). Table 2 also demonstrates that While receiving the bulk (84%) from Russia, China was also supplied by France (5%) and Switzerland (3); this is unusual considering EU arms embargo against China.
* Table 1 shows the top three arms suppliers were US (share of global arms exports 30%), Russia (23) and Germany (11).
The text remarks:
"Ships accounted for 44 per cent of German arms exports in the period 2006–10, and many of the transfers involved licensed production agreements with the recipient states. For example, German deliveries in 2006–10 included four MEKO-A200 frigates to South Africa, six MEKO-A100 frigates to Malaysia, three Type-214
submarines to South Korea and two Type-209 submarines to Turkey.
---------------------------Separately
中国要求新西兰提供地震额外赔偿. VOA Chinese, Mar 14, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/international/20110314-CHINA-NEW-ZEALAND-117919554.html
My comment: I have not heard of compensation for an accident; that is what an insurance is for. After reading the following report, I am unsure if the money is compensation or just a humanitarian gesture (for the money is small, not enough to cover a funeral).
Kate Chapmen, Chinese denied Christchurch earthquake compensation. Stuff, Mar 15, 2011 (1 hour ago).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4768048/Chinese-denied-Christchurch-earthquake-compensation
ACC stands for Accident Compensation Corporation, of New Zealand government.