Chinese soldiers on the training ground. (File photo/Xinhua)
China Challenges Obama’s Asia Pivot With Rapid Military Buildup -- Bloomberg
President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia this week will be dominated by a country he’s not even visiting: China.
Each of the four nations on the president’s itinerary is involved in territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China. And years of military spending gains have boosted the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army faster than many defense analysts expected, casting a shadow over relations between China and its neighbors and sparking doubts about long-term prospects for the U.S. presence in the Pacific.
“There are growing concerns about what China is up to in the maritime space,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There’s a widely held view in the region that the U.S.-China relationship is tipping toward being much more confrontational.”
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My Comment: China is looking at the U.S. .... but their real focus is on their neighbors .... not on America's Asian pivot. Their military buildup is a reflection of this focus .... they want a military that can confront it's neighbors .... not a military that will confront U.S. forces in some other obscure part of the world. This policy may change with time .... but for now the Chinese are focused on countries like Japan, Philippines, India, etc..