China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday.
The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations.
In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named.
Photo: CNA
Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat to US national security,” the report said, adding that China was more “cautious” than Russia, Iran and North Korea about appearing “too aggressive and disruptive.”
Beijing’s “coercive pressure” against Taiwan and “wide-ranging cyberoperations against US targets” were indicators of its growing threat to US national security, the report said.
“China’s military is fielding advanced capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, stealthy aircraft, advanced submarines, stronger space and cyberwarfare assets, and a larger arsenal of nuclear weapons,” US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in testimony about the report to the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
While China would like to maintain positive ties with the US, it is also building up its military capabilities, in part “to gain advantage in the event of a military conflict with the United States” over China’s efforts toward unification with Taiwan, Gabbard said.
The report warned that a conflict between China and Taiwan would disrupt US access to trade and semiconductor technology critical to the global economy.
“Even without US involvement in such a conflict, there would likely be significant and costly consequences to US and global economic and security interests,” it said.
China is likely making “steady, but uneven” progress on capabilities it would use to seize Taiwan and deter or defeat US military intervention, it said.
Beijing would continue to pressure Taiwan with “economic coercion” and would probably increase it if it sees Taiwan taking steps toward formal independence, the report said.
Among possible moves by China to boost its coercion tactics were suspending preferential tariff terms, selectively banning Taiwanese imports and arbitrarily enforcing regulations, it said.
Despite its growing capabilities, China also faces “daunting” challenges, including corruption, demographic imbalances, and fiscal and economic struggles, which would impair its leaders’ strategic and political achievements, the report said.
China would keep expanding its “coercive and subversive malign influence activities” to weaken the US internally and globally, it said.
The Chinese government would seek to counter what it sees as a “US-led campaign to tarnish Beijing’s global relations and overthrow” the Chinese Communist Party, it added.
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