China's Ace Up Its Sleeve? Barack Obama.

...The list of countries potentially hostile to the United States – Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia — is frighteningly long and could increase on moment’s notice to include Pakistan or any number of Arab Islamist states. We already compete with China for controlling military presence in the Pacific. China could decide to take Taiwan by force, or China’s fragile peace with India could break.

Future military conflict with China is likely to be of a conventional sort, rather than the hit-and-run terrorist engagement the Pentagon is preparing for. To counter China, we need substantial conventional forces and a large defense budget.

Just how large is the Chinese military, and how will we stack up once the Obama Pentagon cuts kick in? The facts suggest that China’s military power will equal our own in a relatively brief period of time thanks to Obama’s downgrading of U.S. military power...

Within less than five years, the United States will no longer be the world’s dominant military power. China will be our equal. In U.S. politics, some may welcome the loss of military dominance. Others will fear that we will inhabit a more dangerous new world in which we are less able to protect ourselves.

(Paul Roderick Gregory, "Know Thine Enemy: China And Obama's Defense Cuts," Forbes)