China Remains US’s ‘Unparalleled Priority’ Amid Beijing’s Increasing Aggression: DNI Haines

Chinese Communist Party is U.S. intelligence’s Chinese counterpart. “unparalleled priority” as the regime in Beijing draws increasing pushback over its aggression toward Taiwan and its relationship with Russia, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines told lawmakers on March 8.

“The CCP represents both the leading and most consequential threat to U.S. national security and leadership globally in its intelligence-specific ambitions and capabilities, making it for us our most serious and consequential intelligence rival,” she said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats, and as the U.S. intelligence community released the unclassified version of its annual threat assessment report (pdf).

US Expenses Expansion

Haines warned of China’s growing aggression towards Taiwan and Western allies as its communist regime seeks to keep its supremacy on the international stage.

“[China], which is increasingly challenging the United States economically, technologically, politically, and militarily around the world, remains our unparalleled priority,” Haines stated this in her opening speech.

But, she cautioned that the CCP was still looking to increase its influence. “increasingly convinced that they can only do so at the expense of U.S. power and influence and by using coordinated whole-of-government tools to demonstrate strength and compel neighbors to acquiesce to its preferences.” She mentioned China’s territorial disputes with countries like India and Japan as well as China’s continued aggression towards Taiwan, an island that the CCP considers its own.

Haines listed many of China’s top policy objectives: continued expansion of military and nuclear capabilities, the research and development counter-space weaponry to combat the growing U.S. influence over the upper atmosphere and other countries that aim to take the United States off the global stage.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader in foreign policy is primarily focused on China. “to reshape global governance in line with its preferences and governance standards that support its monopoly of power within China,” Sie said.

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Mark Warner (D. Va.), echoed the warning against Chinese ascendancy. In his opening speech, Warner stated that the CCP has recently reached the point of being a. “near-peer competitor with the United States.”

Xi Takes a Shot at US

Xi and the Chinese regime have become increasingly aggressive, Haines said, pointing to the Chinese leader’s remarks on the sidelines at this week’s opening of the National People’s Congress, the regime’s rubber-stamp legislature.

Notable was Xi’s March 6 comments because he explicitly referred to America in blaming Washington for the nation’s economic difficulties. Xi avoids making direct reference to the United States in these instances.

“Western countries—led by the U.S.—have implemented all-round containment, encirclement, and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development,” According to a report from state media outlet Xinhua, Xi stated that.

Haines stated that this speech was alarming and that it suggested that China had lost confidence in the possibility of reaching a diplomatic settlement with the United States.

“Xi’s speech this week was the most public indirect criticism that we’ve seen from him to date and probably reflects growing pessimism in Beijing about China’s relationship with the United States, as well as Xi’s growing worries about the trajectory of China’s domestic economic development and indigenous technology, innovation challenges that he now blames on the United States.”

Haines stated that Xi wanted to blame Washington for the rising tensions.

China Wants to Keep Escalation at a Minimum

Haines did report that intelligence officials believed Beijing does not want to aggressively alienate America, as it would be a risk to additional sanctions for the United States.

According to her, intelligence officials think that China will struggle to ignite growth.

China, in particular, is experiencing problems continuing its economic growth “because China’s era of rapid catch-up growth is ending and structural issues such as dead demographics, inequality, overreliance on investment, and suppressed consumption remain,” Haines said.

The CCP believes that despite China’s outrage at the U.S. destruction of an intelligence balloon, it will continue to believe that “it benefits most by preventing a spiraling of tensions and by preserving stability in its relationship with the United States,” Sie said.

Of particular concern to the United States is that China may seek to take advantage of the international confusion caused by the Russia–Ukraine war to attempt its long-held goal of taking over Taiwan. Intelligence officers are also concerned that China could continue to make offers to Russia. This alliance, if successful, would be devastating for U.S. interest.

China’s Congress Responds

Recent developments have seen both the U.S. and Chinese lawmakers take a more aggressive stand on the CCP. This was especially after the Chinese spy balloon violated U.S. airspace.

Both chambers of Congress unanimously voted in February for a resolution condemning the CCP’s territorial violation. This was a rare sign of unity within a divided Congress.

The Senate hearing was held as House members started their investigations into the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was confirmed by the FBI Director and Department of Energy in the last weeks. “likely” The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China discovered that there was a laboratory leak which led to the outbreak.

Warner used this opportunity to mention the lower chamber’s hearing, and offered his support.

“Let’s be clear, despite China’s denials, it is entirely fair for us to ask whether a virus that has killed at least 6.8 million people so far might have been accidentally released from a lab.”