Since World War II, the United States has held three enduring interests in the Asia-Psific region: maintenance of a favorable balance of power that prevents the rise of a regional hegemon, continuation of economic access, and the open promotion of universal values. All three are in jeopardy.

Militarily, China has accelerated an arms race to supplant U.S. military superiority in the region and expand upon its ability to coerce regional neighbors. Moreover, despite a 2002 promise to not threaten, use force or build on uninhabited features in the South China Sea, China has systematically harassed ships and aircraft ― even sinking fishing trawlers ― and has clandestinely raced to build or fortify nearly a dozen bases in the South China Sea (and is pursuing additional bases in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans).

Economically, China continues to renege on its World Trade Organization commitments to abide by the global rules-based trading system. Instead, it is working to rewrite them. The United States has bumbled its response, with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) bogged down as China advances the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and works to finalize its TPP alternative, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would link China with 15 other burgeoning Asian economies.

In terms of values, China has steadily and unceasingly driven a coordinated campaign to criticize at home and abroad so-called western values, tighten Communist Party control, and crush democratic aspirations in Hong Kong. China has even sent secret agents to the United States to illegally pressure expatriates, drawing only a private diplomatic warning from the Obama administration. This erosion of the core values of democracy, freedom of expression and open commerce poses a direct threat to American interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The greatest differentiating factor between the United States and China is not military force or economic strength, but rather the U.S. commitment to universal values and a rules-based international order.

As secretary of state in 2011, Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. Four years later, despite much rhetoric, little has been substantively accomplished.

It is time for the White House and Congress to stand up to the challenge of a rising China. Militarily, the United States must fund the forces necessary to deter conflict through continued military superiority, increase freedom of navigation patrols, and end misguided Sino-American military engagements until China ceases its aggression.