China is building up. But many analysts are jumping the gun. Pre-war Germany had some of the best weaponry in the world. It was also one of the world's top industrial powers, having just revolutionized the chemical industry by inventing the Bosch and the Haber processes.
China's weaponry is crap - a small amount of it is overrated garbage imported from Russia, but most of it is Chinese-made junk - modified 50-year old Soviet designs. China is also one of the more backward countries in the world. Don't just take my word for it - go there sometime and experience it for yourself.
Go to any internet military forum with US veterans on it, and they'll tell you that the Chinese military would be flattened by the Korean military, let alone the American one. At this stage, China isn't pre-WWII Germany. It isn't even pre-WWII Japan - a much weaker power than the Germany of that era.*
China is a paper tiger at the moment. And the capabilities gap between the US and China is widening. And will continue to widen, assuming the US military budget remains at around 4% of American industrial output.
* Germany fought all the allies pretty much alone for six years. Uncle Sam devoted 80% of the war effort to fight Germany. It took 4 years to get to Berlin. Three months after 100% of the US war effort was devoted to fighting Japan, the Japanese had surrendered.
And there's the rub. The more people get, the more people want,i.e. they get electricity, next thing you know they want a steady supply of electricity, then a steady supply 24/7.
At some point, in order to retain control, the State will have announce, "The 'build up' stops here." For you can't give people a little bit of choice, wee bit of build up, or a smiggen of freedom - of any kind - and than expect them to say "That's all? Oh, okay."
You can stop them from outwardly expressing the desire but only by beating them into the dust a la Mao or Stalin via a 'built up' military ordered to fire on its own neighbors.
Yeah, and all the Japanese manufacture is cheap toys! </sarcasm>
china has the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capabilities in the world - thanks to investment from the united states. they are also getting some of the most advanced telecommunications capabilities, and the most advanced auto manufacturing plants. these technoligies, along with whatever they can develop with aerospace - are the keys to a modern military.