A clarion call to counter China

A wakeup call and call to arms in the Wall Street Journal:

…we cannot lose sight of the fact that every day China is growing stronger. The rate and nature of its economic expansion, the character and patriotism of its youth, and its military and technical development present the United States with two essential challenges that we have failed to meet, even though they play to our traditional advantages.

The first of these challenges is economic, the second military. … We may think we have troubles now, but imagine what they will be like were we to face an equal.
…
As we content ourselves with the fallacy that never again shall we have to fight large, technological opponents, China is transforming its forces into a full-spectrum military capable of major operations and remote power projection. Eventually the twain shall meet.

He points out that our military budget and resources have declined over the past few decades, while China has been modernizing with deliberate haste. I doubt we’ll be able to reverse those trends, but it’d be nice if we could postpone our descent into 2nd-tier nationhood for a few more decades.