[joegrundman]

You make some good points: it is certainly not the case that all costs are equivalent.

However, i think at the high-tech end of the spectrum (which is where China is developing) the difference in cost is not so great as with the comparative pay of an infantryman.

And also Victor Suvorov's observation about the non-cost of a socialised military is not necessarily correct. Writing off costs is not the same as not having them, although i suppose your point is that it is difficult to know exactly what the real cost of China's military is. But still, Sovremenyy's get bought from Russia, and that costs dollars, which can be counted. And China as some sort of surrogate USSR for US fantasies don't wash either. Chinese workers don't work for nothing anymore, and PLA businesses are in business to make money, rather than to hide costs from the USA.

As an aside, it may interest you to know that in thailand also, the military use their resources of capital and organisation to run a lot of highly profitable private businesses - it seems to be a theme in the Sinified part of the world.