- Napoleon Bonaparte, TheFrench military leader,

said more than two centuries ago

that China is a sleeping lion.

Let her sleep for when shewakes, she will shake the world.

China's president Xi Jinpinghas emphatically declared

that the lion has awakened.

Reaching back to the languageof his Imperial ancestors,

Xi announced during his firstspeech as president in 2012,

that his nation would embark

on the great rejuvenation project.

- Which to put it intoa sort of Trumpian terms

means to make China great again.

- [George] Tom Miller documentsChina's rise in the book

"China's Asian Dream:

Empire Building Along the New Silk Road."

Miller says since taking the reigns,

President Xi has been on a trajectory

of preparing China to bethe world's dominant power.

- Under Xi Jingping, China hasbeen very, very deliberately

trying to realize its kind of ambition

to become the global superpower.

- And Xi wants to achieve that goal within

the next three decades.

- It talks about its centenary goal.

So the people's Republic ofChina was founded in 1949.

By 2049, China wants tobe the global superpower.

- [George] Chinesescholars say it's also part

of the 67 year old's deep belief

that his country has a divineright to rule the world.

- The mandate of heaven isfrom China's Imperial past

where Chinese emperors believedthat they not only have

the right, but theywere compelled by heaven

to rule the world and this notion

of (speaking in a foreign language)

or all under heaven.

- [George] One way is by military force.

As commander in chief of theworld's largest fighting force,

Xi has remade China's People'sLiberation Army or PLA

into a military rapidly closingthe gap on US fire power.

- I think we've justbeen incredibly impressed

and surprised frankly,

by how fast the Chinesemilitary has modernized.

- Zack Cooper is a China scholar

at the American Enterprise Institute

and lecturer at Princeton University.

- If you look at what they've done

in the last three decades,

we've seen about double digit growth

in the defense expendituresfor most of that time.

- [George] The results couldmean a significant threat

to the United States, her allies,

and the Asia Pacific's balance of power.

- It's likely thatChina will seek to build

a military that is equal to,

or in some cases superiorto the US military

or the military of any other great power

that China perceivesas a potential threat.

- [George] The Pentagonrevealing for the first time

that China now has theworld's largest Navy

and plans to double itsnuclear warhead arsenal

in this decade, whichincludes ballistic missiles

that can reach the United States.

- This has been a tremendous change

from a Chinese military,which back in the 1990s

was not even really considered a peer

in any way without the United States.

- [George] Gordon Chang warns that China

is also adapting its military capabilities

to kill Americans.

- Well, it is a greatmilitary threat to the USA

because China is developing weapons

that are specifically targeting

American aircraft carriers and others.

- [George] China warning theUnited States against selling

advanced weapons system to Taiwan,

an island territory thatBeijing claims sovereignty over

has vowed to take backby force if necessary.

- [Translator] This seriously interferes

in China's internal affairs

and seriously damages China's sovereignty

and security interests.

China firmly opposes this.

- [George] The South Chinamorning post reporting

that Beijing is beefing upits military capabilities

for possible invasion of Taiwan.

And while China continuesto secure its borders

and coastal waters,

Xi is also projecting power far from home.

The Pentagon reports citing Chinese plans

to open US style, militarybases from Asia to Africa,

to South America.

- We're really seeing an expansion

of China's military footprint in a way

that certainly wouldn't have been

expected maybe 10 years ago.

And I think we're just goingto see that accelerate.

As China grows stronger,

it's going to have more reasonto go out into the world

and try and protect its trade routes.

That means more of aChinese military presence,

not just in East Asia, butactually beyond as well.

- [George] China is alsorelying on its economy

and technological prowess.

In 2013, President Xi launched China's

belt and road initiative,

sometimes referred toas the new silk road.

Stretching from East Asia,to Europe, to Africa,

China is busy buildingroads, railways, airports,

dams, power grids, ports, bridges,

and the list goes on, all inan attempt to gain economic,

political, and diplomaticpartnerships around the world.

- No, it's expanded fromabout 65 countries originally,

all more or less neighbors of China's,

to encompass most of the developing world.

So there are now more than140 countries around the world

which are officially apart of this initiative.

- [George] Then two years later, in 2015,

the government in Beijinglaunched made in China 2025

with the aim of being atechnological superpower.

It launched initiatives inhigh-tech industries such as

robotics, artificial intelligence,

and next generation technology,and telecommunications.

- China is doing its bestnot only to buy up tech

from other countries,

and we've seen the UUSpushing back against

that very hard in recent years,

but also to kind ofcreate that tech itself.

- [George] Miller says unlike Genghis Khan

and his Mongol empire,

Xi isn't trying to build anempire in the classic sense.

Instead, he argues that China under Xi

wants to become an economic, military,

and technological juggernaut

that was surpassed the United States

and dominate the world forthe foreseeable future.

- Do I think that China, like the Mongols,

is going to, you know, sort of send hoards

of people across Eurasia to come invade

other countries?

No, I don't.

So it's not going to bean empire in that sense.

When I use the word empire,

I'm talking more in terms of an economic

and diplomatic empire,

in terms of global spheres of influence.

- [George] China'sneighbors watch her rise

with mixed feelings.

In America, levels of anxiety about China

are at historic highs.

The Trump administrationhas put Xi's government

on notice for its handlingof the coronavirus pandemic,

it's poor human rightsrecord, trade imbalance,

and a host of other thorny issues.

Still, as the author of arecent political article wrote,

America and the world doesn't get to veto

China's rise only, to reckon with it.

The question is what willthat reckoning look like

in the years to come as Chinacontinues to get stronger?

George Thomas, "CBN News."