Trump has a herculean task ahead of him. If anyone can do it, it’s him.
Because China leveled a direct threat at Donald Trump that has all hell breaking loose.
China is undertaking an unparalleled military expansion that rivals the build-up of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, according to one expert, as a new Department of Defense (DoD) report reveals Beijing’s aggressive enhancements in weaponry and psychological warfare capabilities.
Chuck DeVore, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, sounded the alarm on China’s growing military dominance in a piece for The Federalist.
Citing the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress, DeVore criticized the U.S. for spending $5.4 trillion on counterterrorism and nation-building efforts while allowing the Chinese threat to flourish. He urged Congress to collaborate with the incoming Trump administration to reallocate Pentagon resources toward naval strength, nuclear deterrence, missile defense, and logistics.
“China is engaging in an unprecedented military build-up that the world frankly hasn’t seen since…the 1930s,” DeVore stated on Fox & Friends Weekend.
He highlighted key differences between the two eras, noting, “Now the big difference there is that [1930’s Germany] really focused on land power, which frankly is pretty easy to build up pretty quickly. Navies are much more difficult to build up. And we are way behind. Not only do we need to catch up, but we also need to modernize our nuclear weapons and put a lot of effort into missile defense.”
The latest DoD report on “military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China” underscores the staggering scale of Beijing’s military growth.
“They’re massively building up their nuclear arsenal,” DeVore explained. “We expect it to expand to at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, only five years from now—probably going to be bigger than that.”
He also pointed out, “The Chinese Navy, not by tonnage, but by numbers, is now larger than the U.S. Navy. China has something like 250 times the shipbuilding capacity that America does.”
The report confirms that China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) has added 50 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of striking the U.S., bringing its total to 400.
Additionally, the arsenal now includes 300 medium-range ballistic missiles, 100 long-range cruise missiles, and over 600 operational nuclear warheads, projected to exceed 1,000 by 2030.
China has also developed the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal, including the DF-27 missile, which, according to DeVore, “are capable of evading U.S. missile defenses and targeting Guam, Hawaii, and Alaska.”
Already boasting the largest navy globally, China plans to grow its fleet of 370 ships and submarines to 435 by 2030.
The DoD’s comprehensive 182-page report further examines the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambitions to expand the influence of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) through groundbreaking psychological warfare.
This includes research and development into what the PLA refers to as “cognitive domain operations” (CDO), an evolution of psychological warfare leveraging AI, big data, brain science, and modern communication platforms.
“The goal of CDO is to achieve what the PLA refers to as ‘mind dominance,’” the report states, defining it as using information to influence public opinion and behavior to create favorable conditions for the PRC. This strategy aims to reduce both civilian and military resistance to PLA actions while shaping societal perceptions in ways that benefit Beijing.
CDO, the report notes, is intended to serve as both a deterrent and an offensive tool. By polarizing societies or shaping perceptions, the PLA seeks to “subdue the enemy without fighting,” which it considers “the highest realm of warfare.”
As DeVore warns, the implications of China’s military surge extend far beyond hardware, encompassing a sophisticated psychological campaign designed to secure global dominance without firing a shot.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
