If Europe was the consequential theater of the 20th century, the relationship between the United States and China will define the 21st century, said Gen. Charles Flynn, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific.

Reflecting on his four years at the helm of the largest Army service component command, Flynn said his time as commander of the 25th Infantry Division from 2014 to 2016 was vastly different than it is now.

“The dramatic difference between what I immersed myself and saw in 2014 compared to what I see now in 2024, almost 2025, that trajectory, ladies and gentlemen, that is a very, very dangerous trajectory,” Flynn said Oct. 14 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

“No one builds that kind of arsenal to merely defend,” Flynn noted, pointing out that in the years between his two commands, China has reorganized and built its own commands and training centers on an “accelerated path.”

“You can see what they put in the air, you can see what they put at sea, and you can see what they're doing in the cyber space,” he said, adding that “in our history, at one point we had to make a choice between the European Theater and Asia, and at that point, particularly in that century, Europe was the most consequential theater to the United States and to freedom and prosperity. I would argue that this century is going to be defined by the relationship between the United States and China in Asia, the people are in Asia, the population is in Asia, the global GDP is in Asia.”

Flynn, who is nearing the end of his tenure, will be succeeded in November by Lt. Gen. Ron Clark, who was confirmed for promotion to four-star general and assigned as commander of U.S. Army Pacific.

“Everyone should be very concerned” by China’s actions, Flynn said, and U.S. leadership in the region will be critical because it is a joint theater that will require joint solutions.

The Army, he said, is a “vital part of the joint force” because the service can provide capabilities at scale and at echelon, and because many partners and allies in the region rely on their armies to defend their own sovereignty.

“The U.S. Army is a land power, and it is the central land force in Asia that ties this strategic land power network together,” Flynn said. “It is vitally important that we play that role as a counterweight to what's happening out there.”

In an impassioned plea, Flynn invoked the return of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines in October 1944, recalling that “it took 2 ½ years to get back to that place in the Philippines.”

“We cannot give up that terrain, we can never lose the terrain that we and our allies and partners own today. We cannot cede that space because the price in blood and treasure to get it back is not worth it,” Flynn said. “That would be just a terrible, terrible outcome.”

— Gina Cavallaro