'US homeland increasingly vulnerable' to direct attack from China: report
The Chinese military is continuing a massive, decades-long arms buildup, including a shift in nuclear force doctrine that increases the danger of a direct attack on the U.S., according to the Pentagon’s annual China military power report.
“China’s historic military buildup has made the U.S. homeland increasingly vulnerable,” the report states. “China maintains a large and growing arsenal of nuclear, maritime, conventional long-range strike, cyber and space capabilities able to directly threaten Americans’ security,” according to the report.
The annual assessment made public Tuesday warns that the People’s Liberation Army continues to progress toward its 2027 modernization goals that include preparations for using force to annex Taiwan and threatening nuclear strikes on the United States to prevent American forces from intervening in a defense of the self-ruled island.
The Trump administration’s relations with China are “stronger” than in many years, the report stated in an introduction, and noted that the U.S. does not seek to “strangle, dominate, or humiliate China.”
However, the U.S. military is ready to defend American interests in the Indo-Pacific and, as outlined in a recent White House strategy, “we seek only to deny the ability of any country in the Indo-Pacific to dominate us or our allies.”