“By 2020, China could have as many as 351 submarines and missile-equipped surface ships in the Asia Pacific. By comparison, the U.S. Navy, budget permitting, plans to have 67 submarines and surface ships stationed in or forward deployed to the region in 2020, a modest increase from 50 in 2014,” says in the 2014 annual report of US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) to US Congress.
The commission also said that through China’s rapid economic growth People’s Liberation Army modernization program was made possible. It also noted that regional balance of power between China is shifting in China’s direction from United States and its allies.
USCC also said that China has been acquiring and assimilating foreign military technologies through purchase and theft from Russia, Europe, and the United States.
“China now is able to threaten U.S. bases and operating areas throughout the Asia Pacific, including those that it previously could not reach with conventional weapons, such as U.S. forces on Guam,” says in the report.