Wednesday 24 June 2026
Bradley Bowman /

We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions

Suggestions that the People’s Republic is a ‘paper dragon’ are ill-informed and misleading.
We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions

Americans, according to recent polls and surveys, increasingly view China as a leading threat to the United States. This hardening of American public opinion regarding China has been matched by a growing bipartisan consensus in Washington that Beijing represents our most formidable international security challenge.

Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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