In an opening statement for the Defense Department's fiscal 2025 budget request, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin named only one threat to American national security - and it was not Russia or Hamas - but China.
Increasingly aggressive posturing by the Chinese military are sounding alarm bells in Washington. Between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2023, there were over 180 documented instances of the Chinese military carrying out 'coercive' and 'risky' intercepts of American military aircraft, according to the DOD.
While the U.S. asserts that war with China is neither inevitable nor desirable, China's ongoing militarization poses a real - and growing - threat to vital American interests. China already has some meaningful advantages in key areas of military capability.
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