By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington DC) There is little ambiguity when it comes to the tasks now underway with the newly establish Congressional “Select Committee on the Strategic and Competition between the US and the Chinese Communist Party,” .. as activity is already underway and members are holding little back about the urgency of the threat, calling China the “threat of a lifetime.”
Congressional “Select Committee
“I do think that there is an increasing sense of urgency, not only within the Pentagon, but across the American public, especially with the recent Chinese spy balloon incident. But we still have a ways to go. This has to be an all hands on deck call. This is the threat of our lifetime. And it’s going to require that we’re able to act in months, not years,” Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va, told Warrior in a special interview on the Committee.
The Committee has now been underway for several months and has announced an ambitious line up of expert witnesses. The Select Committee includes members from both parties, is not purely focused on China’s military ambitions but also closely exploring the perhaps lesser recognized elements of Chinese aggression and clear ambition. The Committee does not have legislative powers but plans to inspire and drive timely actions to counter what they believe is a deeply nuanced, complex and significant threat posed by China.
“We had a great first hearing that was an overview about the breadth and scope of the Chinese threat. The witnesses there were pretty incredible. We even had a Chinese dissident there that had experienced the impact of the Chinese Communist Party from Tiananmen Square,” Wittman added.
The military equation is perhaps the most visible, as most Americans know or have heard about China’s hypersonic weapons, larger Navy and AI-applications, yet beneath the radar of this more transparent rapid military build-up, China continues to pursue economic and academic influence.
Piracy
The Committee will be looking at China’s well-documented efforts to infiltrate US research laboratories and academic institutions with a clear mind to learning and “stealing” US military technologies. This problem was widely understood in recent years with the problems at Los Alamos Laboratory, where Chinese scientists received special access to military innovations under the guise of constructive scientific collaboration, and then returned to China in what is believed to be a deliberate interest in “ripping off” US technologies.
This concern is both known and well documented, going back as far as Congressional reports on China from 2014 citing news reports of Chinese cyber-espionage and instances of stolen US weapons designs.
Sure enough, it takes little imagination to observe that oftentimes just several years after the US unveils a new platform, a very “similar” looking Chinese platform emerges. Many lawmakers, experts and US weapons developers do not believe this is a coincidence. The 2014 “US-China Economic and Security Review” cites specific incidents wherein the Defense Science Board uncovered Chinese cyber espionage and lists news reports indicating Chinese theft of sensitive weapons specs such as the F-35 or Patriot missile.
The findings articulated in the text of the 2014 report, which included a 70-page expert essay on the Chinese military compiled by leading thinkers, experts and weapons developers, included multiple specific mentions of Chinese cyber-espionage, an issue which regularly continues to be the focus of discussion, concern and newspaper headlines. In fact, in more recent years Pentagon news reports have been clear to point out overt and clearly observable design similarities between US 5th-generation aircraft such as the F-35 and F-22 and China’s J-20 and J-31.
“Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have in mind the effort to dominate the world strategically and economically. And they will do it by any means possible. Our committee is about identifying where those threats exist today, how those threats are unfolding, and then what the United States needs to do to counter those threats,” Wittman said.
Wittman and other lawmakers and experts involved with the Select Committee explain findings which align closely with multiple Pentagon published reports on China, which are quite clear about the assessment that China seeks global dominance by the PRC Centennial in 2049. Some are of the belief this timetable is moving up, and Wittman and others say China intends to take over Taiwan by as soon as 2027.
“They were very vocal about saying 2027 is when they look to have unification completed, and if not, they’re willing to use military force. I think that’s Xi Jinping’s shot over the bow to the rest of the world, saying that the Chinese Communist Party is going to reunify with Taiwan, whether they want to or not, I believe that they have that full intention to do that,” Wittman said.
Fait Accompli
Wittman’s point here is also aligned with several of the most recent Pentagon reports which raise the concern about a near term “fait accompli” wherein the PRC determines it might be able to quickly annex, occupy and take-over Taiwan quickly. The concept here would be to simply make it much too costly for US and Allied forces to “extricate” and liberate Taiwan with a full invasion. Clearly the cost in lives of that kind of endeavor is considered extremely concerning.
“We don’t want to be in a conflict. but if we have to, we will. And as anybody that looks at all the Wargaming scenarios, they are pretty sobering about what the impact will be on United States forces. What we want to do is build every day with every bit of our capability and capacity, the ability to deter China. I want Zhi Jing ping to wake up every Morning to say, Is today the day? And I want his answer to the Chinese Communist Party to be No, not today that needs to occur every day,” Wittman cautioned.
Congress
There have been some reports of partisan divisions regarding the optimal methods of countering China, something to be expected. While there is Republican leadership and a Republican majority, the Committee does include 11 Democrats and there does appear to be a very strong shared, bi-partisan concern about China. There is likely to be disagreement on what kinds of responses or actions might best address the threat, yet it appears the Committee is quite sincere about reaching bi-partisan consensus give the importance of the risks to US national security.
A hearing on China’s economic intrusions is slated for May 17 with multiple experts on the topic. China is well known and widely reported to be making clear economic incursions into key areas of South America, Africa and of course the US as well. China has not only built a military base in D
jibouti on the Horn of Africa right next to a US base, but is also involved in economic intrusions across the entire African continent.
“We have a full swath of experts in all the different areas of other committee jurisdictions from financial services to natural resources, to energy and commerce, all those areas that are critically important from critical minerals, to to efforts in financial markets by the Chinese Communist Party, to other aspects of what we have to do to protect the nation.”…..
“We need to build that deterrence. It will be a monumental enterprise, Chris, it will take everything this nation has, it will take sacrifice, I think we need to communicate with the American people. This is not going to be an easy process. This is not going to be without sacrifice on behalf of this country. But if not, the outcome is one that none of us want or could see ourselves living in,” Wittman told Warrior.
Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.