Could we be heading for world war 3?

Chinese military spending is more than double the level the country admits to publicly and is growing rapidly, a defence think-tank said on Tuesday.

In its yearly assessment of global military power, the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies estimated that China spent $62.5bn on defence last year, compared with the government’s official figure of $25bn.

The report follows warnings by Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, in China last week that the US and other countries are concerned about a perceived lack of transparency surrounding the Chinese military budget.

The IISS has not yet calculated what it believes Chinese military spending will be this year, but the Pentagon estimates that it could be as much as $90bn, three times the official Chinese defence budget of $30.2bn.

Speaking alongside Mr Rumsfeld at the Chinese defence ministry last week, General Cao Gangchuan, the defence minister, dismissed suggestions that Beijing was ramping up its military defencespending by more than the official figures. He conceded, however, that the budget did not include some expenditures such as the Chinese space programme.

In contrast, the IISS said its own much higher assessment included fundamental parts of defence budgets such as research and development, weapons procurement, military pensions and some nuclear costs. It estimated the Chinese defence budget had grown about 10 per cent in each of the past 10 years.

Tim Huxley, senior fellow for Asia-Pacific security at the IISS, said: “It has become more and more apparent that the official figures do not reflect reality, especially if you look at capabilities the Chinese are developing such as long-range missiles, rapid global deployment and Russian combat aircraft. There is no way you could pay for a fraction of this if the official figures were accurate.”

If this is true then we could be heading for a showdown with China and the people of the west are fueling their growth by buying cheap Chinese products.

A Chinese military general has already stated that China may have to attack America for more living space by using bioweapons that would destroy a couple of hundred million whites. A chinese company has also bought bases on the Panama Canal which is just a faster route for ships to go to the United States.

Could we be heading for world war 3?