During a portion of an interview with CNBC on Friday, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the United States is competing for military superiority with China, and China has been “building systems that are increasingly capable over a long time now, trying to target those assets of the United States.”

Kendall said, “We’re not in a traditional arms race where we try to buy more than somebody else and they try to buy more than we are. We’re in a race for quality. We’re in a race for military superiority, largely through technology, and China has observed, going back to the Gulf War 30 years ago, how we project power and what we rely upon to do that and they’ve been building systems that are increasingly capable over a long time now, trying to target those assets of the United States.”

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