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The superiority of the American military relative to that of any other country in the Asia Pacific has long been a defining feature of the region’s security landscape. Yet, as China continues to invest heavily in its military while U.S. investment contracts, America’s relative advantage is diminishing. What would happen if the United States and China came into conflict over Taiwan or the Spratly Islands? What is the relative likelihood that China would unleash a cyberattack on infrastructure targets in the United States? Listen in as Dr. Eric Heginbotham, principal research scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies, shares the findings from his excellent new book, The U.S.-China Military Scorecard, and lays out the relative strengths of each side, his predictions for the ultimate outcomes in the event of military encounters between the United States and China, and his thoughts on how the U.S. can best preserve regional stability.
C. V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies