The trend in the Asia-Pacific region isn't America's friend, warns the Wall Street Journal
An excerpt:
"The Obama administration has curbed the Navy's expansion plans and sent signals that it doesn't believe in expanding missile defense. Beijing has meanwhile poured money into access denial capabilities, including antiship ballistic missiles, cyberwarfare and antisatellite weapons.
"The American Enterprise Institute's Dan Blumenthal estimates that China has added around three submarines to its fleet every year since 1995. The U.S. submarine fleet, by contrast, is shrinking. It's the same story for fighter jets: China is ramping up its fifth-generation technology, while the U.S. has capped the production of stealth F-22 fighters.
"The Iraq and Afghanistan engagements are also sapping personnel normally assigned to PaCom.Little wonder that in its defense white paper projecting out to 2030, Australia predicted "the rise of China, the emergence of India and the beginning of the end of the so-called unipolar moment; the almost two-decade-long period in which the pre-eminence of our principal ally, the United States, was without question."
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