China has been ramping up its military actions around Taiwan in what one top commander warned on Thursday are not just drills, but “rehearsals.”

“China’s unprecedented aggression and military modernization poses a serious threat to the homeland, our allies and our partners,” Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said during a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. “With military pressure against Taiwan increasing by 300%, China’s increasingly aggressive actions near Taiwan are not just exercises, they are rehearsals.”

Soldiers take up positions during military drills in Jiangxi, China, on Jan. 29, 2023. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

But it is not only China’s military posture toward Taiwan that concerns top military commanders. 

“China’s outproducing the United States in air missile, maritime and space capability and accelerating these,” Paparo said. “I remain confident in our deterrence posture, but the trajectory must change.”

The Indo-Pacific commander warned that China is outstripping the U.S. in the production of fighters at a rate of 1.2 to 1, and warned that the U.S. is falling behind when it comes to shipbuilding, as well as some missile and space-based capabilities. 

A screen grab captured from a video shows the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command launching large-scale joint military exercises around Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft on May 24, 2024. (Feng Hao/PLA/China Military/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“They built combatants at the rate of 6 to 1.8 to the United States,” Paparo told the lawmakers, in reference to China’s investment in producing ships, aircraft and weaponry. 

“We’ve got to get at the problems of why we don’t have enough [of a] combat logistics force – and that’s shipbuilding. Why we don’t have enough labor,” Paparo said. “And those are looking hard at pay and incentives in order to recruit and retain those people.”