China announced its largest ever military budget today: $59 billion for 2008.   The move represents an increase of 17.6 percent over a year earlier and brings China’s military spending on a par with Russia, Britain and Japan. 

Foreign security experts in the United States and elsewhere predict China's defense spending to be two or three times the amount disclosed, arguing that secrecy is part of China's military strategy.  If true, that amount of spending makes China a major military rival capable of challenging U.S. dominance. 

By contrast, U.S. defense spending will reach $717 billion this year if the budgets for Homeland Security, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Defense Department's budget are tallied.  Despite this spending, within twenty years, given the pace that China's economy is developing, the country surpass the U.S. economically and in terms of militarily expenditures. 

The numbers reveal an unfolding struggle for power and influence in the world.  To remain militarily superior, the U.S. should push hard to develop technologies that would provide an edge over all competitors.  A few examples of the types of technologies we should be investing heaviest in include an energy-independent fighting fleet with a range superior to petroleum-based planes, ships, and vehicles; cyber-security units and cyber-hackers units as the country that controls computers will retain military superiority; and the continuing development of the missile defense system.  Thus far, dollars spent on all three technology types amount to about half of what has been spent on the Iraq War.  It's time to wake up.