Listen to this article

On Thursday, the director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said China has become the greatest threat to America since World War II. He claimed the intelligence has informed Beijing is looking to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically. Ratcliffe said, “Many of major Chinese public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party. I call its approach of economic espionage to rob, replicate, and replace. China robs US companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the US firms in the global marketplace”. The officials of the Trump administration have been stepping up their anti-China rhetoric for months, especially during the presidential campaign as President Donald Trump sought to deflect blame for the spread of the coronavirus.

President Trump also warned on a campaign trail that Biden would go easy on China and giving unfair subsidies to Chinese companies and stealing American innovation. However, the President-elect agrees China isn’t abiding by international trade rules. Trump administration once boasted of warm relations with China’s President Xi Jinping. It also has been ramping up sanctions against China over Taiwan and Tibet trade, and Hong Kong and the South China Sea. Ratcliffe is a Trump loyalist who has been alleged of politicizing the position. He has been the nation’s top intelligence official since May. He said he has shifted money within the $85 billion annual intelligence budget to address the threat from China.

Ratcliffe added, “Beijing is preparing for an open-ended confrontation with the U.S., which must be addressed. This is our once-in-a-generation challenge. Americans have always risen to the moment, from defeating the scourge of fascism to bringing down the Iron Curtain”. Biden has also announced that he needs the US Senate to confirm Avril Haines (a former deputy director of the CIA) to succeed Ratcliffe as the next director of US National Intelligence. Point to be noted that Ratcliffe and other US officials have said China has stolen sensitive US defense technology to fuel Xi’s aggressive military modernization plan. They also alleged that Beijing uses its access to Chinese tech firms to collect intelligence, disrupt communications, and threaten the user’s privacy worldwide.