the dominant power in the region. Thus, Beijing works to erode U.S. power and influence in the region while seeking to avoid a direct military confrontation.23 China’s People’s Liberation Army can deny U.S. naval and air forces uncontested access to areas near the Chinese coast, and it can hold major U.S. air and naval weapons platforms at risk

China’s current power factors do not present an urgent military threat regionally or globally. But Beijing’s determined focus on military development increasingly threatens U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and will make American military intervention on behalf of strategic partners there more costly over the coming decade.22

China’s power bases—its tools for international influence through attraction or coercion—have been skewed toward the economic but with clear potential to develop more broadly. China’s trade and infrastructure investment prowess has made it a major force in the economic competitive space. It has declared long-term plans to leverage economic