arms race

Battleland Battleland

The Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone

Last week, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on Chinese soil, Beijing’s military flew its stealth J-20 fighter publicly for the first time. Chinese President Hu Jintao told Gates the timing was a coincidence. It immediately triggered calls back in the U.S. to restart production of the F-22 fighter, at $350 million each, that Gates …