China’s 2008 defense budget suggests the country’s military spending is roughly keeping pace with economic growth, but not growing any faster. The figures are superficial, however, because the total budget may be two or three times the figure declared at this time each year during the annual meeting of parliament. So the whole picture could be quite different. In the declared budget, the government has allocated 418 billion yuan ($58.8 billion) to the military for 2008, up 17.6 percent from last year.

The introduction of China’s new-generation Long March 5 rocket has slipped again, with an industry official saying it is now expected to go into use in 2014. As recently as October the oxygen-hydrogen launcher, which is in the class of the Delta IV and much larger than the current Long March series, was expected to go into service in 2013. Before that, the Long March 5 was seen as a candidate to launch the second Chinese lunar probe, Chang’e 2, which is now due to be launched “sometime around 2009.”

The Southeast Asia aviation market is holding up despite a U.S. economic slowdown, says asset manager Werner Aero Services, which is planning expansion from its Singapore location. “The market has gone soft in North America in the past two months,” says CEO Mike Cazaz. “I don’t see the same response from the rest of the world, although Europe is kind of flat. But places like Southeast Asia and South America are still doing fairly well.” That’s handy because Asia is a region where the company, based in New York, is keen to expand.