Chinese Dominance and the US

What role does the United States play in the international scene twenty years from now? I am asking this question because my post yesterday got me thinking about some difficult issues. For several years before the recession, China’s economy was growing at roughly 12 percent per year. At this same time, the US economy was growing at a respectable 4 percent per year. This means that for quite a while, China’s economy was growing 3 times faster than ours. Even now the nation is rebounding much quicker than we are.

So why am I talking about economics in a military blog? Most people don’t make the connection but whoever has the most money, buys and constructs the greatest military weapons. If the United States continues to enable China to grow vibrantly, they will eventually overtake the world as the economic powerhouse. What happens once this event occurs? If China becomes more economically powerful than the US, it will not be long before their military will reflect such truths. Remember, the person with the most money can buy the biggest gun.

So what can we do to fix this problem? I personally don’t really have a definitive answer. One way that we are continually enabling China is by being a slave of debt to the nation. The US owes China 772 billion dollars. Another suggestion is to continually develop more advanced weaponry. Under Obama’s plans, we will be spending less on military innovation which means nations like China can slip in and develop new, powerful, and innovative weapons. If this happens where will that leave the US? My greatest recommendation is to continue pumping money into our military instead of truncating our programs as Obama would have it.