Trump said today at the White House: "From a military perspective, we are far ahead of China. We are leading in all military fields except for ships, but we will catch up with them."
Comment: Trump's remarks reveal his misconceptions about modern military technology. The claim that "we lead in all areas except for ships" lacks factual support. In the field of hypersonic weapons, China has already put into service the DF-17 and YJ-21, forming combat capabilities, while the U.S. has had multiple failures in related projects and has no operational equipment yet; in nuclear submarine technology, the Chinese 095-class has already posed a challenge to the U.S. Navy, and the so-called "25-year lead" is merely an exaggeration based on quantity.
Looking deeper, this kind of statement is a concentrated expression of American hegemonic anxiety. On one hand, he wants to stabilize allies' confidence in America's security commitments by highlighting "leadership"; on the other hand, he uses the rhetoric of "catching up" to justify expanding the military or adjusting military resources—just like when promoting the "American Iron Dome," citing Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons as a "catastrophic threat." Fundamentally, these are all ways to rationalize internal policies through external pressure. However, this deliberate creation of confrontation only intensifies the global arms race.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846553394968644/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.