‘They’re Going to Challenge Us’: Marine Commandant Speaks on China Threat

Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Dec. 3, 2019. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

China’s military would seek to prevent the United States from mobilizing its forces in the Pacific in the event that war broke out between the two countries, according to the highest-ranking officer of the Marine Corps.

“This competition is going to go on for a while, and we’re going to have to figure out a way through it long term,” Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, said during a talk at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, in Washington on July 7.

US Marine Corps Modernization Efforts

The Marine Corps is currently undertaking a series of dramatic and, at times, controversial changes in its force design as part of an effort to develop advantages against near-peer opponents, such as China’s People’s Liberation Army.