How One Man’s Prediction Fueled Fears of a 2027 Taiwan Invasion

Since 2021, U.S. spending on Pacific infrastructure has surged as part of a strategy to counter China, said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates for reducing military commitments abroad.

“You don’t build runways in the Pacific islands to compete with Russia, right?” she said.

Between 2012 and 2024, about $260 billion a year in U.S. military spending went toward militarized rivalry with China, according to a new paper by Kavanagh. That amounts to roughly 30% of total military spending over that period.