The threat posed by China and its anti-U.S. allies like Russia, Iran and North Korea is more dangerous today than ever, two former high-ranking administration leaders told Congress on Tuesday.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China‘s Communist Party leaders are linking global crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere as part of an anti-U.S. strategy.
“Its governance model — which it claims is supreme — is dangerous for the United States and humanity,” Mr. Pompeo said in testimony to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Appearing with Mr. Pompeo, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said China is exploiting global conflicts to promote a narrative of Western geopolitical decline.
“China has taken every opportunity to undermine the United States and the West, to make us ‘pay’ for access to their markets by stealing our intellectual property, to conduct economic espionage, and to try to keep us out of the Pacific,” Mr. Panetta, a onetime Democratic congressman who served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, said.
Both Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Panetta also were CIA directors. Mr. Pompeo during the Trump administration and Mr. Panetta under President Obama.
China is building up its military capabilities and is increasingly willing to use economic coercion and the threat of force against Taiwan, the island democracy that Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to take over, Mr. Panetta said.
Building up American forces in the Pacific is an urgent task, he added, including additional U.S. military forces and defensive arms for Taiwan.
Mr. Pompeo said China is supporting friendly regimes in Russia, Iran and Venezuela economically through buying oil. North Korea also is closely aligned with Beijing.
“China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela represent a new axis of evil regimes that is pushing a dangerous model for the world,” Mr. Pompeo said, “one where personal and religious freedoms are curtailed and controlled by the state, where neighbors can be invaded, coerced and abused, and economic colonialism is the norm.”
China must be deterred and Chinese economic warfare against the United States must be defeated, Mr. Pompeo said.
“The world and the post-World War II order depend on it,” he said. “If we do not win it and deter the CCP, the prosperity of our nation and the West is at real risk.”
The danger is not just in the Indo-Pacific region, but also inside the United States.
China “is inside the gates at our research labs, our government research institutions and our information space,” Mr. Pompeo contended. “This cannot remain.”
Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, noted that Mr. Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “no limits” partnership days before Moscow sent troops to invade Ukraine in early 2022.
“What was once a smattering of rogue authoritarians causing trouble today looks a whole lot like an axis led by the Chinese Communist Party,” Mr. Gallagher said.