Politics

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The United States is facing a threat from China’s communist regime that Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has warned is more severe than the Cold War, with a senior House lawmaker emphasizing that the regime poses an “immediate danger.”

Campbell made the remarks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Sept. 18, which was centered around the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Frankly, the Cold War pales in comparison to the multifaceted challenges that China presents,“ Campbell said. ”It’s not just the military challenges. It’s across the board. It’s in the Global South. It is in technology. We need to step up our game across the board.”

The Biden administration has labeled China the “most consequential” challenge to the United States, saying that the United States seeks competition with Beijing but does not seek a conflict or a new Cold War. The Pentagon has characterized China as its “pacing challenge,” particularly in areas such as cyberspace, the Arctic region, and outer space.

Campbell emphasized the importance of having a bipartisan focus on China.

“Probably the most important thing that we’re going to need to do in terms of a national strategy in the Indo-Pacific is to sustain bipartisanship, and I do believe we’re on the road to that now,” he said. “I think there is a recognition that this is the most significant challenge in our history.”

Campbell said that the dominant area of competition is in technology, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and semiconductors.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the committee’s chairman, also warned about the threat posed by the CCP.

“The great power competition with China is not just a contest of military might or economic dominance; it is a struggle over the rules which will shape the 21st century and the global balance of power,” McCaul said in his opening remarks at the hearing.

“This is not a future threat or an isolated problem on the other side of the world—the CCP poses [an] immediate danger to the security interests of the United States and its allies.”

Russian Ties

China’s ties with Russia also came under scrutiny during the hearing, particularly Beijing’s support for the Russian war in Ukraine.

Campbell said the United States had been “slow to recognize the absolute intensity of engagement” between CCP leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As for China’s support for Russia’s defense industry, Campbell said it came from the top of the CCP leadership.

“The most worrisome thing is that it comes from the very top,” Campbell said.

“We see the role of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and other capacities that are penetrating the Ukrainian airspace. Much of that has been supported surreptitiously by China, and it raises real concerns.”

When asked about specifics that China provided to Russia, Campbell said that “chips, some design features,“ and ”some capacities associated with the making of explosives” have substantially aided Russian capabilities on the battlefield.

Xi and Putin elevated their ties to a “no-limit“ partnership in February 2021, just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. In 2023, bilateral trade between the two countries reached a new record of $240.1 billion, up 25 percent from the previous year, according to China’s official customs data.

The two leaders reaffirmed their partnership in China in May, during Putin’s first official overseas trip since the start of his new six-year presidential term.

The Biden administration has more than 300 sanctions and export controls on Chinese entities for their support of Russia in the Russia–Ukraine war.

“We, frankly, have taken a lot of sanctions against Chinese firms,” Campbell said. “The challenge is we’ve got to get more support from Europe on this.”

In exchange for China’s help, Russia has provided China with submarine and missile technologies, according to Campbell.

“Russia is providing China with ‘submarine operations, activities of aeronautical design, including stealth; that also involves capacities on missile capabilities,’” McCaul said while quoting Campbell’s remarks following talks with European Union and NATO counterparts earlier this month.

McCaul told Campbell, “I couldn’t agree with you more that countering the CCP must be our top priority.”

At a moment the West – especially the US and UK – are still mulling whether to allow Ukraine forces to attack Russian territory using NATO-provided long-range missiles, President Vladimir Putin has just issued a hugely significant statement regarding his country’s nuclear doctrine.

Putin on Wednesday very clearly lowered the threshold regarding Russian strategic forces’ use of nukes. He in a televised address to Russia’s Security Council said nuclear doctrine has been effectively revised in light of the “emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies.” This is clearly in response to the latest series of escalated cross-border attacks from Ukraine deep into Russian territory. Some of these have threatened to hit Moscow.

He went on to describe that in the event Western powers assist another nation in a major attack on Russian soil, those same Western powers will also be held responsible. This can trigger Russian nuclear launch, according to the new doctrine. This lowers the bar for what can be considered an ‘existential threat’ against the Russian homeland and its population.

Putin laid out, according to a translation: “The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation.”

While not stating that this would automatically greenlight the ability of Russia to respond with nuclear weapons, he did assert that the threshold for their use would be met based on “reliable information about a massive launch of aerospace attack means and their crossing of our State border.”

He then included defense of Belarus as being part of the change: “We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against Russia and Belarus as a member of the Union State,” Putin said.

The below is a paraphrase of Putin’s words and some further details of the changes by state-run RT:

Moscow would also “consider” resorting to a nuclear response if it gets “reliable information” about a “massive” missile or air strike launched by another state against Russia, or its closest ally, Belarus, according to Putin. The weapons used in an enemy’s potential strike could include anything from ballistic or cruise missiles to strategic aircraft and drones, he stated.

The timing of this dramatic and serious alteration in nuclear policy is without doubt aimed at Zelensky’s visit to the United States, where he is presenting Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ separately to President Biden, VP Harris, as well as Donald Trump.

Zelensky has stressed that a key component of this plan is to have the West lift all restrictions of use of long-range weapons. Ukraine’s long-range cross border attacks have already been somewhat devastating, given dozens of oil and gas depots, airfield, and ammo storage sites have been hit over several months. Zelensky wants to inflict greater pain on Russia directly, in hopes at building more leverage for favorable settlement to the war.

Biden days ago responded that “no” – nothing has yet changed regarding Washington’s policy on all of this. Putin’s Wednesday words are timed to keep up the pressure on the US, and to ensure there’s no new greenlight given for Kiev’s use of things like the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) or British Storm Shadows.

⚡️PUTIN: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN CASE OF AGGRESSION AGAINST RUSSIA AND BELARUS⚡️

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed significant updates to Russia’s nuclear strategy, citing the rapidly evolving global military-political situation. These changes… pic.twitter.com/KSLqyAOEp0

— Russian Market (@runews) September 25, 2024

Of course, Putin’s prior warning earlier this month should have been enough to dissuade saner minds in the West. He said before that “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict.” At the time he spelled out that long-range missile strikes on Russia “would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.”

Even should Biden resist the drive to escalate further in the face of Putin’s fresh nuclear warnings, it remains to be seen what the next administration will do, whoever occupies the White House. Trump in particular has been the only candidate to strongly voice that the US must prioritize peace negotiations to urgently end the war. Harris is expected to continue Biden’s policies, which have resulted in an ongoing escalation slide.