David Frum at Daily Beast:

Only half of Americans believe the United States is "No. 1 militarily," according to the National Gallup Poll. This news comes as the sequestration cuts hit the Department of Defense, the United States continues preparations to withdraw forces from Afghanistan, and a rising China invests in its own military.
For reasons that are a complete mystery to me, Frum doesn't point out how far China has to go before it's spending anything like the US on its military.
Jane's Defence Forecasts in 2012 estimated that China's defense budget would increase from $119.80 billion to $238.20 billion between 2011 and 2015. This would make it larger than the defense budgets of all other major Asian nations combined. This is still smaller than the estimated United States defense budget of $525.40 billion for 2013.