Beijing Is on a Wartime Footing

The good news about U.S.-China relations is that last month the two countries restored military-to-military dialogue after a 16-month rupture. The bad news is that it hasn’t slowed the military buildup in Beijing, which increasingly appears to be on a wartime footing. The U.S. needs to do likewise and reassemble what President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to as the nation’s “arsenal of democracy.”

Chinese leaders have articulated a long-term national strategy to achieve the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts,” including developing a world-class military. Over the past decade, the Chinese Communist Party has ramped up defense industrial production and significantly improved its process of researching, developing and producing advanced weapons systems. As Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III recently observed, China is preparing “specifically for a war with the U.S.”