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WASHINGTON: The top US intelligence official stepped up the Trump administration’s harsh attacks on Beijing on Thursday (December 3) by labeling China the biggest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since the Second World War and say it was bent on global domination.
“The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the United States and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically,” National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe said in an opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal website. .
Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman appointed by Trump to America’s top spy job last spring, said China poses “the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom in the entire world. world since World War II. “
He said he had transferred resources within the $ 85 billion annual federal budget allocated to intelligence to increase the focus on China.
Ratcliffe said that China’s economic espionage approach was three-fold: “Steal, replicate and replace.”
He said the strategy was for Chinese entities to steal the intellectual property of American companies, copy it, and then replace American companies in the global marketplace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Wednesday that the US allegations of technology theft were “ridiculous.”
Beijing has frequently asked US leaders to reduce their rhetoric on China, to which it attributes fear of China’s growing role in the world.
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Ratcliffe’s essay in the Wall Street Journal was the latest anti-China broadside from the administration of President Donald Trump, which seeks to cement the outgoing president’s tough legacy with China.
It’s an approach that has brought relations between the world’s two largest economies to their lowest point in decades, and analysts say it could limit the incoming Biden administration’s room for maneuver in dealing with Beijing.
Ratcliffe alluded to reports compiled by US intelligence agencies that Chinese representatives have tried to interfere in US domestic politics.
He also denounced that China had stolen US defense technology to push forward an aggressive military modernization plan launched by President Xi Jinping.
“The election is over. Now let’s all be honest about China, ”he told Reuters after the article was published.
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Among other issues, Washington and Beijing have clashed over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, its tighter control over Hong Kong, its disputed claims in the South China Sea, trade, and accusations of human rights crimes in Xinjiang.
China said on Thursday that US politicians are fabricating news of detained Uighur Muslims being forced to work in the Xinjiang region.
Ratcliffe, who briefly served on the House Intelligence Committee before Trump appointed him to office, has been accused by current and former Democrats and intelligence officials of politicizing intelligence.
In his essay, Ratcliffe said that Chinese authorities had “conducted human tests” on members of the Chinese military “in hopes of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities.” He did not elaborate.
US-based think tanks have reported that China is attaching increasing importance to biotechnology in its military strategy, but they have not released detailed reports on the type of testing alleged by Ratcliffe.
On Thursday, the Trump administration restricted travel to the United States by members of the ruling Communist Party of China and their families.
On Wednesday, the Chamber passed a law to kick Chinese companies off US stock exchanges if they do not fully comply with the country’s auditing standards.
Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert with the think tank at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Ratcliffe’s comments were part of a campaign he has mounted against Beijing and that it seemed to point to a tough approach before President-elect Joe Biden take office on January 20.
“It appears to be part of a larger effort to tie Biden’s hands and limit his room for maneuver in China politics,” he said.
“In previous administrations, the norm has been to avoid taking such actions during a presidential transition, but the Trump administration has long established a pattern for contradicting the norm.”
