Pentagon: China Could Pull Ahead of US Military by 2049

China says US misinterpreting Chinese defense policy

The Pentagon has offered a new report on China warning that by mid-century China may catch or even surpass the US military in capabilities.  They anticipate a “world-class” military by 2049.

This is one of those all-too-common Pentagon reports, which since the tensions began raising between the US and China have been coming nearly daily, playing up China as a growing threat that needs to be the focus of US military policy.

China doesn’t see things that way, faulting the US for misinterpreting China’s defense policy and promised a correction at a future date. China sees the US assumption as based on Cold War thinking about the situation.

The US reports all envision China getting a much bigger military in the future, but it is unclear if they really intend to spend so much on military assets as to compete with the US on a global scale, or will just keep working on being able to contest their immediate vicinity.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is senior editor of Antiwar.com.