China's "historic military buildup" has made the U.S. "increasingly vulnerable," the U.S. said in its annual report on military and security developments relating to Beijing.
"China maintains a large and growing arsenal of nuclear, maritime, conventional long-range strike, cyber, and space capabilities able to directly threaten Americans' security," the report said. "In 2024, Chinese cyberespionage campaigns such as Volt Typhoon burrowed into U.S. critical infrastructure, demonstrating capabilities that could disrupt the U.S. military in a conflict and harm American interests."
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is closing the military gap with the United States faster than any rival in modern history by pairing focused strategy with industrial-scale production, pouring resources into missiles, ships, aircraft, cyber, and space systems designed specifically to counter U.S. strengths in the western Pacific.
The PLA has rapidly improved joint operations, expanded its navy at record speed, fielded advanced stealth fighters and precision missiles, and built a dense surveillance-and-strike network around Taiwan, allowing it to challenge U.S. forces regionally without matching them platform for platform.
The result is a force optimized for short, high-intensity conflicts close to home, one that U.S. defense planners increasingly view not as a future threat, but as a present one.
The 100-page report said the U.S. does not "seek to strangle, dominate, or humiliate China … We seek only to deny the ability of any country in the Indo-Pacific to dominate us or our allies. That means being so strong that aggression is not even considered, and that peace is therefore preferred and preserved. The Department of War will therefore prioritize bolstering deterrence in the Indo-Pacific through strength, not confrontation."
Chinese state outlets and PLA spokespeople describe 2027 as a self-imposed deadline China is using to drive military tech, training, and force transformation at breakneck speed.
Whether those capabilities can deliver a successful major operation, particularly one against Taiwan, is still debated among analysts, but the PLA is unquestionably structuring and timing its modernization around that milestone.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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