China to become 'militarily superior' to US by 2049: Top US general

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Epoch Times
2 Apr 2023 00:56

A renowned US think tank says the new undeniable reality is that the US has entered a Cold War with China and calls on the US government to act before it's too late.

Chinese troops prepare for the arrival of President Xi Jinping at the PLA Hong Kong Garrison during a 2017 event marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British rule. (Reuters)

China is currently on a course to becoming "militarily superior" to the United States with an unstoppable nuclear program and missiles that could reach the US mainland, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley warned on Wednesday,

Addressing the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the 2024 budget of the Department of Defense, the top US General claimed that China aims to become a “global coequal” to the United States and surpass the US army's capabilities by 2049.

“They’re on that path to do that, and that’s really disturbing,” he told the Congress Committee. “That’s really bothersome. And we’re going to have to not only keep pace, but we have to outpace that, and that will assure the peace.”

There is little the US can do to “stop, slow down, disrupt, interdict, or destroy" China's nuclear program, he added.

Milley's statement aligned with that of the US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who warned Congress on Tuesday that Beijing's advancement of its nuclear capabilities was the most “disturbing” military threat he witnessed in his career spanning over 50 years.

The United State's Pentagon warned in December 2022 that China is heading toward developing 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, four times its current arsenal of 400 warheads.

Milley further warned against underestimating China's capabilities - despite the US having a nuclear arsenal of around 3,750 publicly claimed nuclear warheads - implying that the threat posed by China is not to be undermined.

“They have a significant nuclear capability today and they have intercontinental ballistic missiles that can range the United States,” he said.

The top General expressed concerns over China-Russia-Iran relations that have dramatically evolved over the past few years, noting that the US is facing "two nuclear-armed great powers [China and Russia],” while these combined forces [including Iran] "are going to be problematic for many years to come.”

“So, the principles of the Cold War of deterrence still obtain, but now it’s more complicated because it’s two versus one.”

Undeniable Cold War reality

Milley’s statements come shortly before the publishing of the new 2023 Heritage Foundation - a US nonpartisan think tank - report, which will outline that the US has, indeed, entered a new Cold War with Beijing, adding that the report will propose a defense plan to face the new threat.

In October 2022, WSJ reported that the United States military is not what it used to be anymore and is becoming a shell of what it once was despite the US notion that the army is "unbeatable".

The Heritage Foundation's 2023 Index of US Military Strength shows that US hard power is dwindling in strength, the newspaper added then.

According to Heritage, the US military is currently "weak" and "at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America's vital national interests," which should be heavily alarming for Washington, as it is showing dwindling military strength, down from "marginal" in 2021.

President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, considered that there is no running away from the current reality that the US and China are in a Cold War, warning that imminent measures must be commenced by the US government, noting that this is just the beginning.

“It is time to acknowledge reality: The United States is in a new Cold War with China,” he said.

“It is past time for a strategy—for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society effort—that serves American interests and protects the American people and economy from malicious actions by the Chinese Communist Party. This is not the end of the work, but only just the beginning.”

The think tank proposed a list of over 100 policy suggestions across to face China's threat, including counter-measures in foreign policy, military strategy, border and energy security, and economy.

“To succeed in the new Cold War, this plan calls for sustained U.S. economic growth, greater political will, stronger external partnerships, secure borders, synchronized economic and security policies, resilient supply chains, enhanced military deterrence, and American energy independence,” said the editors behind the policy report, James Carafano, Michael Pillsbury, Jeff Smith, and Andrew Harding.

“It articulates the steps necessary to: protect the homeland; safeguard U.S. prosperity; diminish China’s capacity to harm the U.S. and hold the CCP accountable; reorient America’s defense posture; and exercise global leadership,” they added.

Meanwhile, escalating tensions with Russia led the White House to halt its exchange of nuclear information with Russia on Tuesday.

Concerns over China's growing threat to the United States come as Washington's relations with Russia are witnessing deterioration, starting from the war in Ukraine that was incited, backed, and directly supported by the US in funds, weapons, and intelligence to the New START dispute between the US and Moscow, which led to Putin announcing the suspension of Russia's participation in it last month.

“Since they have refused to be compliant with that particular modality of New START, we have decided to, likewise, not share that data,” White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

China surpasses US in tech by far

An Austrlian-based think tank specializing in defense and strategic policy warned in March that Beijing is establishing a monopoly in some areas, pushing the United States and other Western countries further down the race with China to develop advanced technologies.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a year-long project report that found that China is leading in 37 of 44 technology fields, including electric batteries, hypersonics, and advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G, while the US was leading in only seven technologies, such as vaccines, quantum computing, and space launch systems.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies included in the tracker, the report added.

“Our research reveals that China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains."

The top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked, the United States, the document continued.

“China’s lead is the product of deliberate design and long-term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined by Xi Jinping and his predecessors.”