The Pentagon released its annual China Military Power report yesterday. The report, officially entitled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” was first authorized in 2000 by an act of Congress and has been produced annually ever since. As a senior defense official made clear in a background briefing to reporters on Dec. 16, the 2024 edition of the report attempts to prove that China is the Defense Department’s “top pacing challenge,” as stated in the 2022 National Defense Strategy.
While EIR has not yet reviewed the 182-page report, a two-page “[fact sheet’(https://media.defense.gov/2024/Dec/18/2003615417/-1/-1/0/2024-CMPR-FACT-SHEET.PDF)” summarizes it in bullet-point assertions. Among them are the following:
• The P.R.C. aims to accrue national power through political, social, economic, technological, and military development to achieve “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” by its centennial in 2049. With this power, the P.R.C. seeks to revise the international order in support of the P.R.C.’s system of governance and national interests.
• Since late 2023, the PLA reduced the number of coercive and risky air intercepts of U.S. platforms compared to the previous two years, though it continues to conduct unsafe maneuvers in the vicinity of allied forces operating in the region.
• The P.R.C. has the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal and has advanced its development of both conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies over the past 20 years. Similarly, the P.R.C. is capable of producing a wide range of naval combatants, weapons, and electronic systems, making it nearly self-sufficient for all shipbuilding needs.
