Here Be Dragons: Is China a Military Threat?

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.
• Position: Brief article

Here Be Dragons: Is China a Military Threat?

http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=22022

By Aaron L. Friedberg, Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University and Robert S. Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston University

In the current issue of The National Interest, two Asia experts debate whether China poses a military threat to the United States. This is a timely and important debate because Asia has eclipsed Europe as the focus of U.S. geopolitical concern in the 21st century. Friedberg and Ross agree that China is engaged in a significant military build-up and that the United States cannot afford to be complacent in its response to it. They also agree that the two key ingredients of U.S. security in the region are maritime supremacy and cohesive alliances with key allies in the region.

Where Friedberg and Ross differ is in their estimates of the immediacy of the Chinese threat and the adequacy of the U.S. response thus far. Friedberg writes that the U.S. ability to project power into the western Pacific "is now threatened by the maturation of ... China's 'anti-access/area-denial'...