Communist China is boosting defense spending, emphasizing areas crucial to its readiness for war against Taiwan and the United States.

Emphasizing Beijing's urgency on Sunday, one of China's two most senior military officers, Zhang Youxia, called on the People's Liberation Army to "concentrate our efforts on preparations for war." Nearly 73 years old, Zhang remains in his position as one of the very few PLA officers with combat experience. As the South China Morning Post reports , another senior official called for improvements to the PLA's urban warfare capabilities. Most of Taiwan's population lives in cities.

Put simply, Beijing isn't messing around. This year's National People's Congress has confirmed a defense spending increase of 7.2% for 2023-2024.

Although China claims it spends $225 billion on defense, that figure is tens of billions of dollars lower than its actual allotment. Moreover, although U.S. defense spending is significantly higher at just under $800 billion in 2023, U.S. personnel costs are also significantly higher on a per capita basis. China's vast espionage apparatus also allows Beijing to steal U.S. military research while saving on the high input costs of those efforts. The Pentagon likes to assist China's espionage by publicizing its cutting-edge research focuses and the identity of supervising experts.

Technology is an increasing priority.

As Wu Guoguang and Bates Gill note , President Xi Jinping is promoting military-focused technology specialists into the Communist Party's higher ranks. And as the U.S. further restricts Chinese access to Western high-technology industry and goods, Beijing will have an even greater need to steal or otherwise procure high-technology assets. Considering the service that high-tech chips and associated technology provide to the PLA's anti-ship ballistic missile forces, for example, the tolerance of U.S. allies for high-tech cooperation with China must now be a red line issue in U.S. foreign policy. This bears particular note with regard to Europe and Israel , which continue to engage in high-tech trade and research with China.

Still, even as the PLA faces its own challenges in preparing for war over Taiwan, the U.S. is also unprepared for that fight.

For a start, too many U.S. officials, such as the Pentagon's Colin Kahl, offer ludicrously arrogant assessments of the military balance of power. The U.S. lacks enough of the right forces and armaments to contest numerically superior PLA forces, which are operating very close to their home bases (giving them a distinct advantage in terms of rearmament, refueling, and repair). Even as Xi's long-term economic strategy is likely doomed , the U.S. military-industrial base is also too small and too often beset by cronyism and inefficiency . And when it comes to the various U.S. military service branches, only the U.S. Marine Corps is preparing for the China fight with sufficient urgency and honesty .

Want another big problem? The Biden administration continues to divide U.S. forces between Europe and the Pacific, further weakening the already insufficient forces available to deter or defeat China in a conflict over Taiwan. The U.S. needs its European allies to step up so that the U.S. Air Force and Navy can redeploy forces to the Pacific. President Joe Biden missed a major opportunity to publicly pressure German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in this regard during the latter's visit to Washington last week.

Whether or not the U.S. should fight China over Taiwan is a necessary point of debate . But there's little doubt that Beijing is more seriously preparing for such a war than Washington is.