China 'Sprinting' to Superpower Status, Military Escalation Seen as Prelude to Taiwan Takeover

WASHINGTON - A recent Pentagon report is shedding light on a military build-up in the country considered to be the greatest national security threat to the United States.

China is conducting the largest military modernization effort in the country's history. It's a move that the U.S. Department of Defense believes is not only in the preparation for taking Taiwan but also for displacing the U.S. as the world's leading superpower.

"The United States is the world's leading democratic power and China is the world's leading authoritarian power...we're in a competition, whether we like it or not, between these two worldviews, and if we don't realize that we're in a competition, we're going to lose that competition and our core national security economic interests will be at stake," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.