China marches on to military might

If you want a sobering read try the Pentagon's latest report on China's military power.There are numerous paragraphs in the report to remind everyone that China is making huge progress towards turning itself into a military superpower. Beijing under President Xi Zinping, the same man now facing thousands of protesters demanding he resign over his zero Covid policy, has two dates in mind: 2027 to have a fully integrated combat force capable of taking on anyone and beating them (including the US), and 2049 when Xi wants China to be the dominating nation in the world. He calls it a rejuvinated China. We call it a threatening China. One little paragraph states that China last year test-fired more ballistic missiles than the rest of the world combined. That suggests a serious intent. Xi also wants to boost China's arsenal of nuclear warheads to 1,500 over the next few years. Ok, still way below the stocks held by the US and Russia, but this is 1,500 and rising, while Washington and Moscow, in between shouting at each other, are actually keen to reduce theirs, though how long that will last who knows. The annual Pentagon report on China follows a similar pattern. The Pentagon says China poses a major threat to international security and quotes a bunch of statistics to prove the point. Then Beijing answers back and basically says the Pentagon is being unkind, untruthful and hostile. This is the way diplomacy works between the US and China.