The Pentagon’s most recent pentagon report on China’s military has sounded alarms in the press, at the Capitol, and within the Trump administration, but it shouldn’t be.
The United States spends twice and a part more a year on its military than China. It has 11 special groups of aircraft carriers, several of which patrol the waters off the coast of China, compared to two Chinese military aircraft carriers. maintains a network of 800 military bases around the world and has well-armed and trained allies close to China, including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. China has no such global success or network of alliances. Together, the United States and its allies spend more than five to one than China.
So what’s the concern? The Pentagon’s most recent pentagon report on China’s military could show China’s progress in nuclear weapons systems and its purpose of matching U.S. military strength over the next 30 years, but China has fewer than three hundred strategic nuclear warheads deployed, compared to US 1,600.America’s nuclear arsenal is in the middle of a nuclear weapon. But it’s not the first time It is much larger than it is to deter China from attacking the United States, and that will not replace even if China modernizes certain elements of its nuclear forces.As for the purpose of army parity thirty years from now, the dangers of the United States and the planet are much greater in this time frame, which will make the relative measures of the army force irrelevant, adding climate replacement.
China’s genuine and demanding situations are obscured by the Pentagon’s narrow focus on army power, a rule in which the United States dominates anyway, and this is compounded by the Trump administration’s bellicose rhetoric and China’s demonization.policies, including, but not limited to, its repression of Hong Kong and its unacceptable remedy to its Uighur minority, and Beijing has invested heavily in next-generation technologies to jeopardize America’s economic competitiveness in the coming decades.The race with China will do nothing to deal with these demanding situations and possibly make them worse.
The United States desperately needs a new Chinese policy that criticizes Beijing when it is obligatory and leaves room for cooperation in non-unusual areas of interest.There will be no viable solution to the pressing factor of climate change without cooperation between the world’s two largest economies.And while the two countries, in their own way, have mis handlered the COVID-19 crisis, preventing or mitigating long-term pandemics will require the two nations to be reliable partners in global efforts to address them.Add to that the potential benefits of pushing for a fair industry that wages an industrial war and the potential benefits of U.S.-China cooperation become apparent.
Ultimately, China’s most productive U.S. policy in the face of rise is to combine through investment in education, technology, infrastructure, physical care, and other foundations of a resilient economy that meets the desires of its entire population.The Trump administration’s relentless attack on the rule of law questions, america’s revitalization will also feature comprehensive political reforms in the areas of cross-financing, voting rights, judicial confrontation, and strengthening Congress’ role in relation to an imperially and politically dominant presidency that has made it too simple for an autocratic like Donald Trump to hijack our democratic system.
So when the Pentagon and the experts sound the alarm about the capabilities of China’s military, don’t be distracted or pay attention to exaggeration.There are many more things at stake in U.S.-China relations, and the faster we realize that, the better.
I’m the Director of the Arms and Security Project at the International Policy Center.I am that of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Creation of
I’m the Director of the Arms and Security Project at the International Policy Center.I’m from Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex (Nation Books, 2011) and co-editor, with Miriam Pemberton, from Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War (Paradigm Press, 2008).My previous books include And Weapons for All (HarperCollins, 1995), a critique of American policies for the sale of The Nixons’ weapons through the Clinton administrations.