The People's Republic of China is currently engaged in an unparalleled military expansion, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the 1930s under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, warns Chuck DeVore, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
This comes in the wake of a recent Department of Defense report that sheds light on Beijing's bolstering of its military arsenal and its exploration of psychological warfare.
According to Fox News, DeVore, in his article for The Federalist, drew attention to the Pentagon's annual report to Congress. He expressed concern over the United States' expenditure of $5.4 trillion on its war on terror and futile nation-building efforts, while the threat from China has been escalating. He called on Congress to align with the incoming Trump administration's plans to reallocate Pentagon resources to prioritize 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 Adolf Hitler in the 1930s," DeVore stated on "Fox & Friends Weekend." He further noted the contrast between Hitler's focus on land power and China's emphasis on naval strength, a much more challenging endeavor. "And we are way behind. And not only do we need to catch up, but we also need to modernize our nuclear weapons, and we need to put a lot of effort into missile defense," he added.
The Department of Defense's report, which provides a summary of "military and security developments involving the Peoples Republic of China" in 2024, was further elaborated on by DeVore. "They're massively building up their nuclear arsenal. 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 warned. He also highlighted the fact that China's navy, in terms of numbers, now surpasses the U.S. Navy, and that China's shipbuilding capacity is approximately 250 times that of America.
The report reveals that China has significantly enhanced its Peoples Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) arsenal, adding 50 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of striking the continental U.S., bringing its total to 400. The Department of Defense also discloses that China has added 300 medium-range ballistic missiles and 100 long-range cruise missiles to its arsenal, which now includes over 600 operational nuclear warheads, expected to exceed 1,000 by 2030.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) is reported to possess the worlds leading arsenal of hypersonic missiles, including the DF-27, which, as DeVore points out, "are capable of evading U.S. missile defenses and targeting Guam, Hawaii, and Alaska."
The report also details the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) efforts "to expand the reach of its influence operations around the world and seize information dominance on the battlefield," by researching and developing what it "believes to be the next evolution of psychological warfare," known as cognitive domain operations (CDO). The PLA's goal with CDO is to achieve 'mind dominance,' using information to influence public opinion and effect change in a nation's social system, likely to create an environment favorable to the PRC and reduce civilian and military resistance to PLA actions.
The PLA's strategy, as outlined in the report, is to exert psychological pressure and instill fear in an opponent, using CDO to subdue the enemy without fighting, which it considers "the highest realm of warfare." This military expansion and the development of psychological warfare tactics underscore the growing threat posed by China, necessitating a reevaluation of U.S. defense strategies and resource allocation.
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