By Andrew Thornebrooke
May 3, 2022 Updated: May 3, 2022
U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall speaks at the National Press Club on April 19, 2022 in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to displace
the United States as the world’s premier power, and is building the military required to pursue that goal,
according to the secretary of the Air Force and Space Force.
“China has ambitions to be the great power
on the face of the earth,” said Frank Kendall. “They have ambitions to be the global great power.”
“To do
that, they basically have to displace the United States.”
Kendall
made the remarks during a
May 2 talk on the future of American air and space power with the Brookings
Institution, a Washington-based think tank. During the talk, Kendall clarified
that, while Russia was currently diverting international resources and
attention, the CCP remained the key threat to the United States across every
domain.
“I’m
much more concerned about China than about Russia,” Kendall said.
Kendall
explained that the Chinese military was rapidly expanding and modernizing its
forces with the explicit purpose of ejecting the United States from the Western
Pacific and gaining both regional hegemony and the ability to pursue global
influence operations.
“It was
quite clear that [China’s] desire was to deny us the ability to project power
in the Western Pacific,” Kendall said of Chinese military development.
“They’re
not waiting to see what we do.”
He said
that the CCP was focusing resources on developing “transformational
capabilities” and new rocket forces that would grant it the power to push the
United States out of the region and allow it to effectively deter interference
with its plans to conquer Taiwan, which it claims is a breakaway province of
China.
To that
end, Kendall said that the United States should believe the words of CCP leader
Xi Jinping when he said that he sought to unite Taiwan with the mainland and
would not rule out the use of force.
“I made
the mistake a few times during the Cold War of not believing what the Soviets
were saying,” Kendall said. “Turns out they meant what they were saying. I
think the same can be assumed of the Chinese right now.”
“I
don’t think that they’re interested in grand territorial expansion, but they
are interested in having as much influence as possible so that they can set the
rules for the economy,” Kendall added.
Kendall
also spoke on the issue
at a May 3 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on the posture of the
Air Force and Space Force, where he said that China was explicitly studying the
American way of war and investing in systems capable of undermining it.
“They
are studying how we fight … and designing systems that are intended to
defeat us,” Kendall said.
He
noted that China’s much-talked-about hypersonic weapons test in July was
specifically invested in because of the capability of strategic hypersonic
weapons to evade American defenses.
To that
end, Kendall also presented a joint statement (PDF) to the Committee
with Space Force Gen. John Raymond and Air Force Gen. Charles Brown, which
underscored the importance of centering American strategy on combating China.
“…Tgreatest
challenge to the Department of the Air Force’s ability to perform its missions
is the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) long-standing and extensive military
modernization program,” the statement said, using the official name for
communist China.
“In
addition to developing the ability to attack in space, the PRC has integrated
space capabilities into its military operations in order to target maritime,
air, and land forces and project power through space. The PRC’s 2021 test of an
orbital hypersonic glide vehicle constitutes a new challenge to strategic
deterrence and stability.”
Kendall
said that he was focused therefore on developing resiliency among U.S. systems,
as the American military relied heavily on small numbers of high value assets.
As such, he said that the Department of the Air Force would double its research
and development spending, with a particular focus on forging more resilient
space systems and increasing force survivability in preparation for a potential
conflict with China
https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-is-studying-how-us-fights-designing-systems-intended-to-defeat-america-air-force-secretary_4443378.html
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