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no they don't, but they do have to spend more than they would simply facing the US or even the old standby the US-Japan-Taiwan. As the other Asian powers arm, China has to reciprocate. The arms race cycle I build so you build, so I build in turn. The US gets caught up in this to an extent but the other Asian states arming dilutes some of China's building as not all assets can be concentrated in such a dynamic enviroment- the defenders dilema.
The hawks go to congress and say yell the Chinese are coming and they get a new destroyer or brigade or a couple more F-22's. The US can concentrate these assets while China's build up is diluted. on top of this if the CCP starts favoring the PLAN or PLAF over the PLA there will be problems so China has to further dilute its spending to keep the ground forces happy. Again the hawks go to congress for more weapons and the US gains a march.
If China tries to match even more rapidly, then the cycle in Asia starts all over again with a fresh round of building that again forces China to dilute its force while giving the US hawks more chances to ask for money.
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