Foreign Policy tackles a handful of countries who are beefing up their military programs rather than downsizing them. Far and away, the U.S. is at the top of the list, with spending in excess of $400 billion dollars annually - and that’s the budget, not the extra expenses of war.

At only a quarter of that spending, China is still growing exponentially. With a 2.25 million member strong army, China has as nearly as many boots on the ground as there are people living in Chicago and about the same as the number of people in the U.S. prison system - now there’s an idea of what to do with them.

The Chinese are also on track to have quite possibly the largest navy in the world by 2020, with a complement of home-made nuclear submarines supplemented by Russian-built subs and destroyers.

The article nails it - China is gearing up for a conflict with America over Taiwan, a fact that is too often ignored in this country and probably will continue to be until it’s too late.

Looks like I need to move up my timetable on visiting the red dragon before it’s too late.

Filed under: "We're All Gonna Die!", The China Threat, World News