Trump security adviser accuses China of stealing coronavirus vaccine research, casting rival as threat of the century
- Robert O’Brien tells top UK and US military and intelligence officers that CCP intends to ‘monopolise every industry that matters to the 21st century’
- In 20-minute broadside, he also targets Beijing’s Belt and Road plan, saying it offers poor nations ‘unsustainable loans’ to build ‘white elephant’ projects
US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser accused China on Wednesday of trying to steal Covid-19 vaccine research from the West, casting it as a malign rival that was seeking to monopolise every important industry of the 21st century.
Trump identifies China as the United States’ main competitor, and has accused the Chinese Communist Party of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak, which he calls the “China plague”.
In a 20-minute broadside against China, Robert O’Brien told top British and US military and intelligence officials that China was a predatory power that repressed its people and had sought to coerce both neighbours and Western powers.
“The CCP is seeking dominance in all domains and sectors … [and] plans to monopolise every industry that matters to the 21st century,” O’Brien told the Atlantic Future Forum via a video link to Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
“Most recently the PRC used cyber-enabled espionage to target companies developing Covid[-19] vaccines and treatments in Europe, the UK and the United States all the while touting the need for international cooperation,” O’Brien said.
China, under President Xi Jinping, says the West – and Washington in particular – is gripped by anti-Chinese hysteria, colonial thinking and simply anger that China is now once again one of the world’s top two economies.