China: Competitor or Adversary?

The U. S. Navy’s presence in East Asia has a long history dating back to the early 1800’s.  This presence is essential for promoting national strategic policy, assisting allies to whom we have treaty obligations, and most importantly protecting freedom of the seas for ourselves including vital international commerce.  Trillions of dollars of the world’s commerce transit the waters of the western Pacific including the East and South China Seas, waters whose control is now hotly contested.  The region also boasts massive oil and gas reserves.  Competition to gain control over and exploit those precious resources has heated up in recent years and created an explosive and contentious situation.  As the economic powerhouse of Asia, China seeks to rule the roost dictating terms in the region, many times flouting international law, and behaving contrary to accepted norms of civilized behavior.  To counter the malign influences of China, a robust U. S. Navy presence in the region is an absolute necessity.

• Should the U. S. worry about their control of the Panama Canal (controlled through a Hong Kong Billionaire with strong ties to Beijing)? 19% of the cargo going through the canal originates from or is destined for China.  67% of the cargo transiting the canal is U.S. cargo.  Also, the canal is a critical military passage between the Atlantic and Pacific.  Any oceanic transit without the use of the canal adds almost 8000 miles, ~15-18 days, and increases transportation costs dramatically.
• How should the U. S. view their fielding of the Type 094A ballistic missile submarine with sea-launched ballistic missiles with 11,200 km range, deploying their ballistic missile submarines to the Indian Ocean, and deploying mobile launchers to the Russian border with the Dongfeng-41 with a 15,000 km range? These actions enable their ICBM’s to reach into virtually the entire U.S.  China recently successfully tested long-range ICBMs with 10 MIRV warheads.
• Why have they developed and successfully tested sophisticated satellite-killing weapons including directed energy weapons, satellite jammers and ICBM/kinetic kill vehicles such as the SC-19/KT-2? These assets directly threaten the U. S. for we have by far the most satellites in orbit providing support for critical communications including military command and control, global positioning, intelligence gathering, and critical weather information gathering necessary for military operations.
• Why do they have two nuclear-powered SSNs with four more under construction? Nuclear powered SSN’s are primarily for offensive operations against surface ships.  Only the U. S. Navy has the numbers of surface ships advanced enough to be considered a threat to what the Chinese consider their waterways.  The U. S. Navy mission of ensuring freedom of navigation for international commerce is not a threat to China but isn’t it apparent that is not how they see it?
• Why have they hacked into U.S. government systems such as the Office of Personnel Management, where they stole the security information of 22 million government workers? The damage done by this dastardly theft of sensitive U.S. government information has never been fully divulged.    
• Why do they steal intellectual property from the U. S. and others? The 2016 Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission reports, “China appears to be conducting a campaign of commercial espionage against U.S. companies involving a combination of cyber espionage and human infiltration to systematically penetrate the information systems of U.S. companies to steal their intellectual property, devalue them, and acquire them at dramatically reduced prices.”  This sophisticated industrial espionage constantly attacks private sector industries including defense industries to steal advanced technology.  One senior U.S. official stated that any technical advance made by the U.S. is safe from Chinese theft for a maximum of 18 months. 
• Why is China rapidly modernizing their anti-ship ballistic and cruise missile force including over-the-horizon capability? The DF-21D has a range of 1500 km and is viewed as potentially lethal against U.S. surface ships including our aircraft carriers.  The sole use of these weapons is for attacking U.S. warships.  Why have they adopted an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy for all their coastlines and are rapidly arming?^[3]
• Why is China using a white-hulled strategy in area waters, using law enforcement vessels to impose its will over international waters to expand its economic zone?^[4] Without any significant U.S. objections to date, China is changing strategic expectations in international waters to the detriment of our own policy of support for freedom of navigation and commerce and an even more serious detriment to our regional allies.
• Why has China opened its first overseas military facility in Djibouti and is planning to open other sites like this in the Indian Ocean in the next decade? Since 2014 why has China dramatically increased its presence in the Indian Ocean such as port visits in Sri Lanka where it has gained the rights to berth its ships?  What is the maritime Silk Road?  It is not a secret but perhaps not well known that China seeks to open a commerce route to the Mediterranean.  China employs loan policies to expand its influence in the region.  It loans money at generous terms for development.  If a location with a port has trouble with repayment, China graciously eases repayment terms in exchange for port visit rights or berths for its vessels.  This technique is being widely used and will greatly increase Chinese presence and influence in the coming years.  China’s 5 year plan (2016-2020) does not hide the fact but lays out plainly their intent to gain access to up to 18 ports including but not limited to Chongjin port (North Korea), Moresby port (Papua New Guinea), Sihanoukville port (Cambodia), Koh Lanta port (Thailand), Sittwe port (Myanmar), Dhaka port (Bangladesh), Gwadar port (Pakistan), Hambantota port (Sri Lanka), Maldives, Seychelles, Djibouti port (Djibouti), Lagos port (Nigeria), Mombasa port (Kenya), Dar-es-Salaam port (Tanzania), Luanda port (Angola) and the Walvis Bay port (Namibia).^[5]
• Why has China militarized islands in the South China Sea in international waters and is continuing to strengthen those islands in open defiance of an international court ruling? China has added more than 3200 acres at just the Spratley site and has four runway sites that will eventually be long enough to support any Chinese aircraft.  China has recently built huge hangers at Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief reefs.  These hangers are large enough to store China’s largest military aircraft.  It now appears those islands are being militarized.
• Why has China developed the world’s fastest supercomputers and is investing heavily in developing quantum computers? If China develops a quantum computer before the U.S. or our allies do, it will represent a significant computer security and command and control threat to the United States and will dramatically undermine our military superiority overnight.
• Why did China in 2013 change its published naval strategy from regional to international?^[6]
• • Adoption of a two-layered strategy: “Near-Seas Defense, Far-Seas Operations
  • Enhancing “active defense” to distance potential enemy operations from China’s shores
  • Unprecedented stressing of the need to engage in “strategic prepositioning,” i.e. having more military assets forward deployed
  • Increased emphasis on Military Operations Other than War and international maritime contributions far from China
• Why did China increase their military budget 9.8% per year during the period 2006-2015? During the same period, the U.S. defense budget adjusted for inflation is basically flat.
• Why has China developed radar systems that can detect our stealth aircraft including the newest, the F-35? China is developing several advanced aircraft the J-11D, the J-20, and the J-31.^[7]  Copying Russian and U.S. aircraft has been long a standard practice of China.  Its newer aircraft are intended to be near-peer competitors for the F-22 and the F-35.  The PLAAF is the largest air force in Asia and the second largest in the world with over 2800 aircraft including 2100 combat aircraft.