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Military rivalry between China and America has continued under the new US administration. Photo: Reuters

US marines chief calls China ‘the pacing threat for the next decade’

  • General David Berger meanwhile downgrades Russia threat, putting it alongside Iran, North Korea and extremist groups
  • It follows remarks last month that to compete with China and Russia, US military needs ‘a new framework for assessing readiness’
The US Marine Corps commandant has elevated China as the top threat facing American policymakers amid concerns over the PLA’s military build-up.

“China will remain the pacing threat for the next decade,” General David Berger wrote in a memo to Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, military website Breaking Defense reported.

He meanwhile downgraded the Russia threat in the February 23 memo, placing it alongside Iran, North Korea and extremist groups as areas that will “continue to pose threats”, according to the report on Tuesday.

Berger’s remarks came after he wrote in a joint opinion piece with Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown last month that the US needed a new framework to take on China and Russia.

“To compete with the People’s Republic of China and Russia, and successfully address other emergent challenges, the US military requires a new framework for assessing readiness,” they wrote in The Washington Post.

“It should focus less on near-term availability and more on future capability and warfighting advantage over peer adversaries.”

To achieve this goal, they proposed the US accelerate investment in advanced capabilities including “hypersonic weapons, AI-enabled remotely piloted aircraft, long-range penetrating strike”.

General David Berger wrote in a joint opinion piece that the US should invest more in areas like hypersonic weapons and AI-enabled remotely piloted aircraft. Photo: Wikipedia
The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence echoed this call in a report released on Monday, urging the US government to increase its use of AI technology or risk losing the country’s global lead in the sector to China. 

It followed a US Congressional Research Service report in August that said China was America’s strongest competitor in cutting-edge military technologies such as artificial intelligence and that it was already a world leader in quantum computing.

The report also noted that while the US was unlikely to field an operational hypersonic weapon before 2023, China had already developed the DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile which can carry a nuclear hypersonic glide vehicle.

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US President Joe Biden orders new Pentagon task force to review China strategy

US President Joe Biden orders new Pentagon task force to review China strategy

China has the world’s largest navy, with about 350 ships and submarines including over 130 major surface combatants. That compares to the US Navy battle force of about 293 ships as of early 2020.

Military rivalry between the two powers continues to ramp up under the Joe Biden administration.
On Monday, US defence chief Austin hosted the first meeting of the new China Task Force, during which he provided some “initial guidance” for what both the White House and the Pentagon have described as a “sprint” to identify priorities in the nation’s competition with China.

But Liu Weidong, a US affairs specialist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing was not building up its military to confront any one country and that it was part of its development path.

“China won’t take a provocative approach towards other militaries,” Liu said. “It will stick to its own development path to improve strike and infiltration capabilities regardless of the outside challenges.”

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