On Thursday, December 5, 2024, John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, expressed concerns about the country’s inability to “deter and win a fight” with China, agreeing with experts who have warned the Biden administration on the country’s ability to develop and produce weapons. “Decades of underinvestments and consolidation had seriously eroded our defense industrial base, and there was no way around it,” stated Jake Sullivan, a national security adviser on Wednesday, December 4. American shipbuilding has decreased after slowing production in the early 1980s. At the congressional hearing on Thursday, December 5, Moolenaar said “bold policy changes and significant resources are now needed to restore deterrence and prevent a fight.” China is the world’s largest navy, estimated to be 230 times larger than the U.S. The Democratic representative of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Raja Krishnamoorthi, told fox news that “for every oceangoing vessel that we can produce, China can produce 359 in one single year.” Officials have claimed that Beijing is making the world’s largest military buildup amidst the rising tensions in the South China Sea. Admiral Samuele Paparo, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has warned that the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were “eating away” at U.S. weapons and are weakening the country’s military ability to respond to a threat from China.
I think that this is the start of an arms race between the U.S. and China. With the conflicts in the South China Sea and the U.S. backing Japan and the Philippines with joint training programs, there might be some small proxy conflicts between the two powers in the future. The U.S. and China have had a tense relationship, and challenging each other in the South China Sea might weaken their relationship.
The U.S. should invest more in their shipbuilding and weapons manufacturing to create more defense weapons incase of a conflict with China. The United States should also consider the amount of weapons and money they are sending to other wars. They need to discuss if it is better to focus on weapons for themselves or other countries. China should continue to ramp up their shipbuilding, but keep it in private as it is causing tensions between them and the U.S.
This article connects to what we are discussing in class because of relative identities. In international relations, relative identities are how actors see themselves in comparison to others. Since the United States typically aligns itself with countries that share similar norms, it views China as a rising military opponent instead of a future military ally.