As the United States winds down its military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, a new threat looms on the horizon: China. The growth of Chinese power outlined in the report is only the latest expression of the concerns voiced in Congress and by China’s neighbors, who have been pushing Washington to be more assertive in providing a counterbalance at a time when the nation’s budget woes are threatening dramatic cutbacks in security spending.
China is investing in capabilities that appear designed to counter the U.S. military’s freedom of movement in the western Pacific, said Mark Gunzinger, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who has been studying China’s military. “They’re not an open book, which is a cause of great concern,” he said.
The Pentagon hasn’t been idle in the face of China’s growing military power. Military planners are working on a strategy to counter Beijing’s moves, based on a plan first proposed by Gunzinger and others at CSBA last year.