Given US foreign and economic policy intent on dominating every corner of the planet [0] and the universe [1], could you blame China, Russia, or any other country for doing everything they can to reach parity with the US?
Giving up all your rights in the name of endless wars on everything is a path to a sad ending for the US and the world.
Lol who holds them responsible? Not civilians, I can assure you.
They’re just more nimble because they’re top-down leadership. Not as good at expressing the people’s will, but more nimble at implementing autocratic decisions.
Wait, "expressing the people’s will"? Who in this conversation does anything like that? Certainly not USA. We didn't vote for spending three-quarters-billion-dollars-a-year on a military that hasn't accomplished anything in over five decades. Neither did we vote to spend the untold hundreds of billions we spend "in the black budget" on the even less effective unsupervised services. The last four presidents have run for office promising less militarism, but not a single one has delivered on that promise. "People's will", what a joke.
First of all, there’s asymmetrical warfare. Russia’s investment in cyber, hypersonic, etc.
China’s investment in medium range missiles to create access denial for the US in the pacific.
Plus factor in that the US budget is bloated because of these corrupt fat cat defense industry companies, huge waste, etc...