“I cannot understand for my life some of the capabilities that they are putting on the field, unless it is an aggressive stance,” said Admiral Philip Davidson, head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, in testimony before the Senate Armed Committee of Services.
“I see them developing systems, capabilities and an attitude that would indicate that they are interested in aggression,” said Davidson.
Davidson, who at the hearing defended billions of dollars in budget requests for new armaments in the Pacific, said increased investment was necessary to stem Chinese military ambition in the region.
Describing China as “the greatest long-term strategic threat to security in the 21st century,” Davidson said Beijing has been making increasingly threatening moves, citing Chinese military activity around Taiwan along its disputed border with India. and even around the U.S. islands in the Pacific.
“I am concerned that they are accelerating their ambitions … to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the international rule-based order, which they have long said they want to do by 2050. I am concerned about them moving that target closer,” said Davidson.
China insists that its armed forces are on the defensive.
“The development of China’s national defense aims to meet its legitimate security needs and contribute to the growth of the world’s peaceful forces,” said the country’s defense white paper of 2019. “China will never threaten any other country or seek any sphere of influence. “
Regarding Taiwan, the autonomous and democratic island that China claims as its sovereign territory, Davidson said Beijing could make a move to take it in the near future. “I think the threat is manifesting itself during this decade, indeed in the next six years,” he said, adding that the threat to Taiwan is increasing while the US ability to stop Chinese stocks is “eroding”.
Asked whether the United States needs to defend Taiwan, Davidson said that inaction would damage the US’s international status and undermine its credibility as a defense partner.
Mainland China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of a bloody civil war in 1949, but Beijing promised never to allow the island to become formally independent and refused to rule out the use of force if necessary.
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of China,” Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian said in January. “The PLA will take all necessary measures to resolutely defeat any attempt by the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and to firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Citing Taiwan and Beijing’s territorial disputes with neighbors, Wu defended on Sunday the recently announced 6.8% increase in China’s military spending for 2021, saying “the world is not peaceful and our national defense must be strong” , according to state media.
‘Guam is a target today’
“We are seeing Chinese naval deployments of service task groups and submarines that circumnavigate Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands Community,” he said.
“Guam is a target today. It needs to be defended,” said Davidson, pointing out that the island is home to 170,000 American citizens. “Their defense is the defense of the motherland.”
To this end, the admiral said that Congress needs to fund the Aegis Ashore anti-missile defense system, at a cost of about $ 1.6 billion, for the island.
Current missile defense in Guam is provided by the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, but Davidson said it does not provide the 360 degree coverage that would be needed to respond to possible threats from Chinese missile-armed ships, submarines and planes. .
“We have to demonstrate that any ambition that China may have and any threat that it may pose against Guam will come at a cost,” he said.
Democratic Diamond Alliance
The Aegis Ashore plan is part of the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a $ 27 billion five-year plan to update US forces in the region.
In addition to the Aegis system, the Pentagon has also requested new radar defenses for Hawaii; more intelligence and recognition resources; more ammunition; more troops from the Navy, Air Force and Marines in the region; and more training and exercises with allies and partners.
These partners include members of the four-nation Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic forum in the United States, Japan, India and Australia.
Davidson on Tuesday referred to this group as a “diamond of democracies” in the Indo-Pacific.
Davidson said on Tuesday that he hopes the organization can “build something bigger”.
“Not just in terms of security, but in terms of how we can approach … the global economy, critical technologies like telecommunications and 5G, collaboration in the international order – just a lot to be done diplomatically and economically,” he said.
The US commander’s testimony came at a time when Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked his country’s armed forces to “focus on combat readiness” while setting military goals for the next five years, according to an agency report state news agency Xinhua.
“Highlighting the ‘instabilities’ and ‘uncertainties’ in China’s current security circumstances, Xi said that all armed forces should always be ready to respond to all types of complex and difficult situations, resolutely safeguarding national sovereignty, security and interests. development, and provide strong support for the full construction of a modern socialist country, “said the Xinhua report.