AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
1
10 Ways the United States Is Falling
Behind China in National Security
August 2023
In military capability and capacity, the People’s Republic
of China (PRC) and the United States may soon be on
an equal footing. US House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) recently affirmed
that “China is rapidly approaching parity with the United
States.”
1
A few years ago, the Defense Department’s 2020
China military power report similarly noted, “China has
already achieved parity with—or even exceeded—the
United States in several military modernization areas.”
2
The report highlighted land-based conventional ballis-
tic and cruise missiles, shipbuilding, and integrated air
defense systems as key areas of concern.
A recent development in these concerning trends is
a memo that US Strategic Command sent to Congress
in January 2023.
3
That memo revealed a startling find-
ing: China now has more land-based (stationary and
mobile) intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than
the United States. This is but one instance in a string of
examples of China rapidly catching up and exceeding the
United States in military capability and capacity.
Beijing continues to leverage key structural advan-
tages that are accelerating these gains. According to the
Pentagon, China’s national strategy considers military
modernization a key component of its effort to revise
the international order to support Beijing’s system of
governance and national interests.
4
It demonstrates
this intention through strategies such as military-civil
fusion, which blurs or eliminates barriers between
government and commercial sectors to build a more
capable military at a rapid clip. Compared to the US,
China develops and produces advanced capabilities at
a fraction of the cost and time by avoiding burdensome
bureaucratic processes that provide oversight and allow
for open competition.
China also benefits from its geography in the Indo-
Pacific: The likely near-term theaters of conflict are
close to the PRC’s shores and thousands of miles from
the US mainland. For this reason, China need not even
wait to surpass America’s raw capabilities to obtain the
competitive advantage in several key areas. Following is
an overview of 10 areas in which the US national secu-
rity apparatus has fallen behind or is due to fall behind
the Chinese military, absent significant efforts and
intervention.
Mackenzie Eaglen
Key Points
• While the United States still enjoys advantages over China in many key fields of national security
competition, recent trends illustrate that American military dominance is stagnating and China is
rapidly catching up.
• China is successfully leveraging asymmetric structural advantages, such as its authoritarian
military-civil fusion and geographical position in the Indo-Pacific, to rapidly reach parity with or
exceed the United States’ military capabilities.
• Further complacency about these issues will only ensure that Chinese capabilities surpass those
of the United States sooner than expected.
