According to the Russian News Agency reported on the 29th, John Hayten, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared when attending a meeting of the "Defense Writers Group" that China has the ability to surpass Russia and the United States in military strength in the next few years.
Asked whether the Pentagon sees China as the main potential threat to the United States, not Russia, due to the rapid growth of its military potential, Hayten said that "Russia remains the most imminent threat." The reason is simple: So far Russia has deployed 1550 nuclear warheads against us (the United States). And China (nuclear potential) is about 20% of this. ”
John Hayten, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, foreign media infographic
In his view, the United States should "worry about Russia in the short term." Still, he declared China a "pacing threat." "Because the pace of China's development is simply shocking. If we don't take steps to change this, the pace and trajectory of their progress will surpass that of Russia and the United States, and that will become a reality. He said.
Hayten predicted that "if we only talk about the United States" and not its foreign allies, then the situation "will become tricky in 5 years", "but if we are talking about the United States and its allies, then I don't think we will have a problem for a while." However, Hayten did not explain in detail the meaning of these words.
Source: Visual China
He also called on Russia and the United States to continue dialogue on strategic stability, and mentioned China on this topic, saying that he hoped to start a comprehensive military dialogue between China and the United States. "I hope that at some point, we can sit down and negotiate with China and Russia, I don't care whether we sit down alone or together, we're going to talk about everything," he said. The most important thing is to understand their ideas. And the only way to understand what the other side is thinking is to sit down and negotiate. ”
Hayten also assured that the United States would not seek new military conflicts at all after long operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. "I want everyone to know that we don't want to go to war with Iran," he said. We don't want to go to war with China. We don't want to go to war with Russia. We don't want war with North Korea. We don't want to fight. In fact, we are tired of war. We don't want to fight anymore. We want diplomacy to play a role. ”
At the same time, he warned that the United States intends to continue to follow the concept of military operations for preventive offensives. "We will reserve the right to launch attacks in self-defence," he said. But we don't want war. ”
In addition, Hayten has repeatedly complained about how clumsy and slow the bureaucracy for the Development and Adoption of New Weapons Systems and the construction of the military has become. "Despite the negligible progress we've made, the bureaucracy and slowness of the U.S. Department of Defense remains incredible," he said. (Edit: HHJ)