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Just a regular American
Good story about China and its military buildup.
This is forcing the US to spend billions of dollars to develop another bomber, the long range strike bomber!
The US military is stretched thin because we are a global military force and are involved militarily through treaties and commitments all over the world. The Chinese military is concentrated in one area. The threat is what is important here. If the Chinese are perceived as more powerful in the region then it will be they not us who influence events in the region. Even Japan, a long time foe of the Chinese, might have to start allying with the Chinese instead of the USA.
Jconline - China's military flexes its muscle
As the Pentagon plans for U.S. forces to exit Iraq and Afghanistan, it is keeping one eye trained on the rising threat in the East. For two decades China has been adding large numbers of warships, submarines, fighter jets and more significantly developing offensive missiles capable of knocking out U.S. stealth aircraft and the biggest U.S. naval ships including aircraft carriers.
At the same time, China has announced that its territorial waters extend hundreds of miles beyond its shores, well into what its neighbors and the United States consider international waters. It has installed more than 1,000 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, a democratic island nation and U.S. ally. Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan all have complained to the United States about confrontations on the high seas with China.
This is forcing the US to spend billions of dollars to develop another bomber, the long range strike bomber!
Since 1989, China's defense spending has increased by nearly 13% annually, according to the Department of Defense 2010 Annual Report to Congress. In March it announced its annual budget would be $78.6 million.
U.S. defense spending dwarfs that figure. The fiscal 2012 Pentagon budget request is $676 billion. However, the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank focusing on the military, has said the U.S. military is underfunded and cannot counter China's threat to U.S. allies in East Asia with declining defense spending, as some in Congress are seeking as part of a deal to raise the ceiling on the national debt.
Although the USA spends more, it suggests China's real defense spending approaches $300 billion. And all of that spending is concentrated in one region, East Asia, while the U.S. spending is spread out over many regions of the world.
The US military is stretched thin because we are a global military force and are involved militarily through treaties and commitments all over the world. The Chinese military is concentrated in one area. The threat is what is important here. If the Chinese are perceived as more powerful in the region then it will be they not us who influence events in the region. Even Japan, a long time foe of the Chinese, might have to start allying with the Chinese instead of the USA.
Jconline - China's military flexes its muscle