Dominion, that's what China wants.
And now it has the potential to supersede
America as the world's leading superpower.
That's according to a new report
by the House Intelligence Committee.
The big question: will itlead to a military showdown?
Dale Hurd has that report.
- This is video from the Chinese military
showing a simulated attackon America's Air Force Base
on the Island of Guam.
Meanwhile, during a simulated attack
on a Pacific Island this week,US military personnel wore
this patch on their uniforms,showing a drone over China.
The war drums in the Pacific are building.
With the US standing upto Chinese expansionism
in the South China seaand fighting back against
China's attack on the Americaneconomy and its security,
it's raised fears the two nations
could be headed for a military showdown.
Some say China has sought to
dominate an economicallyweak post COVID-19 world
through increasingly aggressive behavior.
20 Indian soldiers were killed this summer
in a surprise cross-borderattack by the Chinese army.
China has clashed with itsneighbors in the South China Sea
by claiming most of it for itself.
And there are fears of warbetween China and Taiwan.
China has been looting theUS of intellectual property
and military secrets on a colossal scale.
FBI Director ChristopherWray says his bureau
is opening a new Chineseespionage case every 10 hours.
- The greatest external threatthat the United States faces
over the medium andlong term is the threat
by the regime in China today,
the Chinese Communist Party led
by General Secretary Xi Jinping.
- [Dale] And Secretaryof State Pompeo says
China is set on world domination,
but he says the Trump administration
is determined to stop it.
Dale Hurd, CBN News.
- Retired Brigadier General
Robert Spalding is a senior fellow
with the Hudson Institute.
He's joined us now to talkabout the China's threat.
General, thank you for being with us.
What do you make of this report
from the House Intelligence Committee?
- Well, I got chills reading the report
because this is something I'vebeen pushing for since 2015.
The intelligence communityhas been completely focused
on the Middle East and not on the threat
from the Chinese Communist Party.
The resources, the training,the language ability,
all of these things were not capable
to the vast, vast armada
of information influenceintelligence collection
that the Chinese CommunistParty is executing,
not just against America,but democracies everywhere.
- We've got to project power,but do we have enough ships?
We've got about less than 300 ships.
Do they have more ships than we do now?
Does that make a difference?
- They have more ships thanwe ships than we do now.
They have carrier killingballistic missiles.
They have thousands of ballistic missiles.
We haven't built any ballistic missiles
or long-range cruisemissiles in the region
because of the IntermediateNuclear Forces Treaty
we were in with Russia, eventhough they were cheating.
So the president pulledout of that in 2019.
I'm hopeful that webegin to build the kind
of cost-effective deterrent capability
that allows us to keep theChinese Communist Party at bay.
- Nuclear war is unthinkable.
We have those Polaris submarines
that are loaded with nuclear weapons.
Is that enough to deter China?
Or does China actuallyhave ballistic missiles?
And have they gotten the MIRVtechnology by any chance?
- I think one of thethings that's happened is
that nuclear weaponshave been deemphasized
in terms of countering countries
like China and Russiain the United States.
And we need to understandthat these are important
components of our defense strategy
if we want to preventa war in the Pacific.
Just like we did during theCold War with the Soviet Union,
we used nuclear weaponsto basically threaten them
to keep them at bay.
This is something thatwe're going to have to do
with China because it's their backyard
and they really, quitefrankly, have little fear
of the neighbors in the region.
So it's up to us to really work
with our allies and partners,
to deter China and deter the conflict
that that could be potentiallyspurred in the Indo-Pacific.
- There's no questionthey're trying to move
into the South China Seaand exercise in that area.
What do we do to stop them?
For example, could wedo some kind of attack
on their infrastructure, a cyber attack?
Can we would go after themthat way rather than nuclear?
- It's far more effective if we build up
both the economic competitiveness
but also the independence ofthe countries in the region
just like we did with Europe
with the Marshall Planduring the Cold War.
We need to be much more effective
at building the resiliencyand economic capability
of our allies and partners in the region.
And when we do so, we're able to
counter the Chinese Communist Party.
Their primary weaponis to go into societies
influence that leadsthrough graft and bribery,
but also to undermine thesociety's social cohesion
through social media and the internet.
They're doing that to theUnited States right now.
And we called for in thenational security strategy
a secure nationwide internetfor the United States
to protect the American people from this.
It has to happen forother democracies as well.
- Right now, they'rein the South China Sea
and they may be threatening Taiwan.
What if they make a move?
What is the United States,what are our options?
What's one, two, three,could we do about it?
- Right now they've builtup an incredible imbalance
of military power in the region.
We would be very hard-pressed
to do anything about it right now.
It's important that westart to work on this.
I think the House Intelligence Committee
report is a wake up call for us.
And I think we need to get busy.
- [Pat] Have we got enough time?
- There is enough time.
And quite frankly, theChinese Communist Party wants
to continue to get Americantechnology and money.
And they are trying to stay connected
to the globalized worldin order to do that.
We can use that to our advantage,
to put pressure on them, tokeep them out of our society,
but also to take the time to really build
up a deterrent force in the Indo-Pacific.
We don't want war.
Right now the Chinese leadershipdoesn't want war either
because they want tocontinue to steal from us.
But over time, they'regoing to become emboldened
as we do a better job at protecting
our society from their influence.
- General, we talked aboutthis so-called EMP attack
that could fry our electric grid.
Could we do something like that to them?
Do they know that'shanging over their head?
Is that something that we'vegot in our bag of tricks?
- Unfortunately what theChinese Communist Party
has been doing over the last two to three
decades is really strengthening
their critical infrastructure in China.
While in the United States,
we have basically been neglecting ours.
So we've focused on building
up the joint force fighting abroad.
We haven't invested in asecure and resilient internet
or a secure and resilient electrical grid
in spite of the many reports saying
this is an incredible dangerfor the United States.
The president needs to be focused
on rebuilding our infrastructure,
rebuilding and strengthening our economy
and our manufacturingin the United States,
and investing in science and technology.
These are things that theEisenhower administration started
to prepare us for the Cold War.
It got the EisenhowerNational Highway System
and we need a digital super highway
that secures America's data
from the Chinese Communist Party.
- You think we've got one more time,
and then this is the last question.
Have we got time to get it done?
- We absolutely have time to get it done.
It's just time for usto really buckle down,
fix the challenges that we have in terms
of national security,strengthen our Homeland Defense
in the electrical grid, in the internet,
protect our civilians,protect them from influence,
protect our economy.
And I think we do those things,
it's not the military rightnow that's a challenge.
It's our Homeland Securityin terms of our resilience
and the prevention of influence.
- General Spalding, thank youso much for being with us.
And ladies and gentlemen,
I've talked about this overand over and over again.
Our electrical grid so vulnerable
and the amount of moneyto fix it is pennies
considering the thetrillions we're spending.
A few billion dollars and wecan harden our electrical grid.
But if there's an EMP blast and suddenly
our electrical grid doesn't work.
And the general wastalking about the internet.
If that's a compromised, wewill be in terrible trouble.
Think about all the transfersof money that take place
on the internet and all thefinancial data that's there.
And if that gets compromised,we're in a heap of hurt.
You don't have to go to nuclear war.
I do not think that God is going
to allow the nationsto have a nuclear war.
I just don't think that's going to happen.
But these other things are very real.
And it's time we spend money on this.
We're spending all kinds of money
on COVID relief and so forth.
A little bit spent onhardening the electrical grid
and hardening the internet
would be so important for America.
And the general said, and I totally agree,
there's a little time left, but not a lot.
