Defense spending has doubled in Asia over the past decade, according to a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan, nonprofit U.S. think tank.
The spending increased rapidly, especially during the last five years, to reach a total in the region of $224 billion in 2011. China, Japan, India, South Korea and Taiwan accounted for 87 percent of all expenditures, with China the top defense spender since 2005 when it overtook Japan.
China's expenditures have grown to $89.9 billion, with Japan second highest at $58.2 billion and India third at $37 billion. These figures may be underestimates, the study noted, since not all spending may be completely transparent. While this level of spending does not compare to the leaps in spending during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union spent increasingly large sums on defense, the redirection of economic resources is a seismic shift in the priorities of Asian governments. The higher priority of defense spending places a tremendous burden on already-strained economies throughout the region.