In a marathon series of congressional hearings and panel discussions, congressional leaders, a top Navy admiral, and a wide range of experts pointed to China as the most consequential strategic rival and national security threat to the United States. A consensus is emerging that the United States must push back against the Chinese regime’s aggression with a “whole-of-government” approach.
President Donald Trump commented in his recent State of the Union address that China is now a strategic “rival” of the United States. While Chinese regime diplomats and those in the United States favoring the maintenance of the status quo in U.S.–China relations criticized the use of the word “rival,” Congress made clear through the week of hearings that there is plenty of support for the president’s realist view of China’s one-party communist regime.
