, Air Force (includes Airborne Forces),
and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force); People's Armed
Police Force (internal security troops considered to be an adjunct
to the PLA); Militia (2003)

Military service age and obligation:
18-22 years of age for compulsory military service, with 24-month
service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service; 17 years
of age for women who meet requirements for specific military jobs
(2004)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 18-49: 342,956,265 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18-49: 281,240,272 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 13,186,433 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$67.49 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
4.3% (2004)

Transnational Issues China

Disputes - international:
in 2005, China and India initiate drafting principles to resolve
all aspects of their extensive boundary and territorial disputes
together with a security and foreign policy dialogue to consolidate
discussions related to the boundary, regional nuclear proliferation,
and other matters; recent talks and confidence-building measures
have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, site of the world's
largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under
the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and
Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does
not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in
1964; about 90,000 ethnic Tibetan exiles reside primarily in India
as well as Nepal and Bhutan; China asserts sovereignty over the
Spratly Islands together with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan,
Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct
of Parties in the South China Sea" has eased tensions in the
Spratlys but is not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by
some parties; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China,
the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord on marine seismic
activities in the Spratly Islands; China occupies some of the
Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; China and Taiwan
have become more vocal in rejecting both Japan's claims to the
uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's
unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea,
the