One key goal in developing this briefing is to illustrate the complexity of the various forms of competition, and the fact that the competition is both civil and military, is global rather than centered in one area like Taiwan or the South China Sea, and is often a competition for military and civil influence that goes far beyond Asia – and where each nation’s ability to influence and deter may well be more important than its ability to fight.Īnother goal is to illustrate the sheer complexity of the competition and its many different dimensions, as well as the rapid rate of change in many key areas of military force, economics, and politics – rates of change where it is clear that experts are forced to speculate as to how each side will progress over periods of at least the next two decades to understand these vectors of change. where possible, recognizing that the estimates are often different and controversial. It has added summary comparisons of China and the U.S. This briefing is supported by a wide range of graphs, maps, and tables that provide a diverse view of the summary data on a wide range of China’s strategic and military capabilities where these can be summarized in quantitative form or by using maps and selected quotes. The Burke Chair is now presenting a regularly updated summary briefing on key developments in Chinese capabilities to compete with the United States and other powers.

China’s capability to compete at given levels has increased radically since 1980 in virtually every civil and military area, and China has set broad goals for achieving strategic parity and superiority, although the timeframes for such goals are vague – and neither China nor the United States has published anything like a credible unclassified net assessment of current and future capabilities or provided details as to how each country’s broad statements about strategic goals would actually be implemented. There is no simple way to introduce the challenges that China’s strategic presence and growing civil and military capabilities pose in competing with the United States.

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