The US is able to spend their defense dollars more efficiently then China. The US generally has more advanced military technology so each additional dollar spent is able to purchase weapons that can produce more damage.
I disagree with this.
From my limited knowledge of the subject, I've seen the US spend much larger amounts on new aircraft and new naval ships just for new technologies. The weapons themselves can't produce more damage - the vehicle that delivers the weapons becomes harder to hit. The US has no problem spending a billion dollars just to increase likelihood of survival a few percent.
In other words, the US spends a lot more per soldier than China does. But in their defence, they have a lot more soldiers and don't need to protect them as well.
