military

The PRC maintains the largest standing army in the world, although there is a general belief both within the PLA and among outside observers that numbers are of limited usefulness in estimating the power of a military. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) includes the PRC's navy and air force. The PLA's official budget for 2005 is $30 billion, but this does not include money used for foreign weapons purchases, military-related R&D, or the paramilitary PAP, and critics label it a deliberately misleading low estimate. A recent RAND study estimates that the total military spending of the PRC is 1.4–1.7 times as large as the official military budget.

By some estimates of true spending, the PRC's military spending is second only to the US's of over $400 billion. The PRC, despite possession of nuclear weapons and delivery systems, is widely seen both inside of China and on the outside as having only limited ability to project military power beyond its borders and is not generally considered to be a true superpower although it is widely seen as a major regional power. This is due to the limited effectiveness of its navy (lack of aircraft carriers) and air force (much less flight training time, older planes).

From: Wikipedia