China is using all instruments of power to achieve its goals while the United States lags behind, US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. said on Friday.
“I would say that China, the People’s Republic of China is using all instruments of power to achieve their goal, and we are behind,” Brown said during a speech at the National Press Club.
Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and Programs Lt … Gen. David Nahom told Congress in late July that China is building up its offensive air capabilities far faster than US military planners anticipated when writing their National Defense Strategy three years ago.
China has also transformed itself into a “strategic peer with world-leading, anti-access, area-denial capabilities” that is custom-designed to beat the US, Brown said.
Brown, who served as the Air Component Commander for the US Indo-Pacific Command prior to becoming Air Force Chief of Staff, emphasized that without change, the US risks losing its competitive edge in the highly-contested global environment, its credibility with allies and partners, and its ability to defend the national interest.
Earlier, US State Secretary Antony Blinken expressed Washington’s concern over the “rapid growth” of China’s nuclear arsenal, the State Department said.
“The Secretary … noted deep concern with the rapid growth of the PRC’s [the People’s Republic of China] nuclear arsenal which highlights how Beijing has sharply deviated from its decades-old nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence,” the department said in a statement about Blinken meeting with the ASEAN Regional Forum a day prior.
