, 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)

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 379,524,688 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 208,143,352 (2004 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 12,494,201 (2004 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$60 billion (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
3.5-5.0% (FY03 est.)

Transnational Issues China

Disputes - international:
involved in complex dispute with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan,
Vietnam, and possibly Brunei over the Spratly Islands; the 2002
"Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" has
eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code of
conduct" desired by several of the disputants; most of the rugged,
militarized boundary with India is in dispute, but the two sides are
committed to begin resolution with discussions on the least disputed
Middle Sector; Kashmir remains the world's largest and highly
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), but recent discussion
and confidence-building measures among parties are beginning to
defuse tensions, India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding lands to
China in a 1964 boundary agreement; China and Taiwan continue to
assert their claims to the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands
(Diaoyu Tai) with increased media coverage and protest actions;
certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers are in an uncontested
dispute with North Korea and a section of boundary around Mount
Paektu is indefinite - China has been attempting to manage illegal
migration of North Koreans into northern China; China and Russia in
2004 resolved their last border dispute over islands in the Amur and
Argun Rivers, but details on demarcation have not yet been
worked-out; boundary delimitation agreements signed in 2002 with
Tajikistan cedes 1,000 sq km of Pamir Mountain range to China in
return for China's relinquishing claims to 28,000 sq km, but
demarcation has not commenced; agreements with Vietnam demarcating
maritime boundaries and fisheries cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin
were ratified in June, and