[ad_1]
O’Brien made the comment during an appearance via video link to HMS Queen Elizabeth, the British aircraft currently in Portsmouth. HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently hosting the Atlantic Future Forum 2020, a security conference for Western defense experts.
Relations between China and the United States have deteriorated dramatically in recent years.
The two superpowers have clashed over trade, COVID-19, human rights, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
President Trump has angrily attacked Beijing for its failure to control the coronavirus, which he calls the “plague of China,” and what he says are exploitative business practices.
O’Brien took aim at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which runs the country like a dictatorship, during his appearance at the Atlantic Future Forum.
“The CCP seeks to dominate all domains and sectors” (Image: GETTY)
HMS Queen Elizabeth currently hosts the Atlantic Future Forum 2020 (Image: GETTY)
He said: “The CCP seeks domination in all domains and sectors and plans to monopolize all industries that are important for the 21st century.
“More recently, the People’s Republic of China used cyber espionage to target companies developing COVID vaccines and treatments in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, while promoting the need for international cooperation.”
There is growing concern in the West about the rapid technological advances that China has been making in the fields of AI, conductive polymers, and regenerative medicine.
Earlier this year, Boris Johnson announced that Chinese tech company Huawei will be banned from operating on the UK’s 5G network from 2027.
READ MORE: China’s navy is becoming the ‘largest surface and underground’ fleet
Robert O’Brien pictured with President Trump (Image: GETTY)
Several countries, including the US, have also considered blocking Chinese mobile apps like TikTok.
O’Brien argued that the West has taken a soft line with China over the past decades, for example, by allowing it to join the World Trade Organization in 2001, on the false assumption that Beijing would become more open and liberal.
He added: “Sadly, those are promises that to this day he has not kept.
“Instead, the CCP leaders duplicated their totalitarian approach and their mercantilist, state-dominated economy.”
DO NOT MISS
World War III fears: QUAD alliance described as ‘primitive’ – ‘Mobilizing Forces’ [SHOCK]
China Warning: Mark Sedwill Says UK Has Been ‘Naive’ To Beijing [WARNING]
NATO unveils space force in Germany to counter China’s weapons [REVEAL]
Relations between China and the US have dramatically worsened in recent years. (Image: GETTY)
China has made significant strides in the field of Artificial Intelligence (Image: GETTY)
COVID-19, which has caused more than a million deaths and closures worldwide, first appeared in China in late 2019.
Initially, Beijing tried to suppress the reports of the new disease, and a Chinese doctor who tried to spread the world was attacked by the police.
China later admitted to the World Health Organization that it was battling a new and highly infectious disease and ordered mass closures.
During the Atlantic Future Forum, O’Brien claimed that China’s response to the coronavirus “erased any lingering doubts about its intentions.”
He also attacked Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive economic development program stretching from China to Europe, as a “white elephant” based on “unsustainable loans.”
O’Brien argued that his intention is to make developing countries, in Asia and Africa, economically dependent on China and thus increase their political power.
He commented: “These countries’ dependence on Chinese debt leaves their sovereignty eroded and they have no choice but to stick to the party line on UN votes and other issues.”
Robert O’Brien attacked the Belt and Road initiative as a “white elephant” (Image: GETTY)
The HMS Queen Elizabeth, along with her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, is the largest ship ever commissioned by the Royal Navy.
It entered service in 2017 three years after its launch.
HMS Queen Elizabeth recently returned to Portsmouth from the North Sea, where it had been operating as part of a new Carrier Strike Group, alongside other British, American and Dutch warships.
[ad_2]
