US: NO.1 THREAT IS CHINA
Pentagon report
Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recent nuclear saberrattling, the Biden administration views China as the top threat facing America — and will focus the military on addressing the danger posed by Beijing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described China as “the pacing challenge” for the Pentagon in the 80-page unclassified version of this year’s National Defense Strategy released Thursday.
“As the president’s national security strategy notes, [China] is the only competitor out there with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the power to do so,” Austin told reporters at the Pentagon.
While the document says war with China is “neither inevitable nor desirable,” defense and military experts, including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, have said the communist country could try to take Taiwan by force anytime between now and 2027 — something Biden has said would trigger a US response.
“The PRC’s increasingly provocative rhetoric and coercive activity towards Taiwan are destabilizing, risk miscalculation, and threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” the document states, using the official acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “This is part of a broader pattern of destabilizing and coercive behavior that stretches across the East China Sea, the South China Sea and along the Line of Actual Control [between China and India].”
Thursday’s strategy calls for the US to prevent China from obtaining “dominance over key regions,” referring to Beijing’s growing pressure campaigns and influence over smaller countries in Southeast Asia, as well as Africa and South America.
The effort is especially important as China’s military undergoes rapid acceleration, developing hypersonic missiles before the US, building a larger fleet than the US Navy’s and boosting its nuclear stockpile from the estimated 350 it has now to an expected 1,000 by 2030, the Pentagon has estimated.
To combat the threat, the strategy charges the Pentagon with doubling down on its efforts to develop advanced technologies, investing in cyber capabilities and ensuring all military branches can work seamlessly together, as well as with allies.
“China is rapidly advancing and integrating its space, counterspace, cyber, electronic, and informational warfare capabilities to support its holistic approach to joint warfare,” the document said.
Meanwhile, the document describes Russia as an “acute threat.” It notes Moscow’s “serious, continuing risks in key areas” such as global nuclear threats, cyber attacks, chemical and biological weapons and undersea warfare.