Peter Navarro

The U.S. trade deficit with China hit a critical milestone in 2015. It now stands at a mind-numbing $1 billion a day, and that $365 billion annual trade deficit continues to rise with the lift of China's illegal export subsidies, sweatshop labor, pollution havens and undervalued currency. The failure to understand that America's Chinese import dependence has now reached critical mass as a national security issue comes from the very mind-numbing magnitude of the numbers involved. Let's see, however, if we can put the size of the U.S. trade deficit with China into some perspective; and let's start with the F-22—the only U.S. fighter jet with the agility, speed and stealth to overcome the latest Russian air defense systems and newest Chinese and Russian fighters.

Over the course of the 2016 presidential debate, the argument that "America vastly outspends China" will likely be used to discount any possibility of an emerging China threat. In fact, it is an argument with considerable statistical appeal. Consider that while China's reported annual military expenditures are rapidly heading beyond $200 billion, the United States still spends more than three times that. Moreover, China's military spending consumes only about 2 percent of its gross domestic product annually while the U.S. number is closer to 4 percent.