China is Top Threat to U.S. National Security: ODNI Report
Top U.S. intelligence leaders singled out China’s Communist Party (CCP) leadership as the “most consequential threat” to U.S. national security.
This as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its annual threat assessment report, and top U.S. intelligence leaders testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Broadly speaking, the report highlights two critical strategic challenges that “intersect with each other and existing trends to intensify their national security implications.”
The first challenge is that great powers, regional powers, and non-state actors will vie for “dominance in the global order” and compete to “set the emerging conditions and the rules” for decades to come.
The report says that the next few years will be “critical” as the U.S. and allies vie for global influence with authoritarian regimes like China, Russia, and others.
The second challenge is that the nations are battling an array of shared global issues, including climate change, food insecurity, migration, and an increased risk of future pandemics.
China
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that China is increasingly challenging the U.S. on economic, political, and military fronts and that dealing with China’s rise “remains our unparalleled priority.”
The report stated that China is advancing nuclear-weapons capability and progressing toward its goal of being a “world-class space leader.”
Other areas covered in the ODNI report include China’s ambitions in cyber, with the report saying China “probably currently represents the broadest, most active, and persistent cyber espionage threat to U.S. Government and private-sector networks.”
Russia
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the threat from Russia at large was another topic in the report and at the hearing.
The report predicts that China will continue to cooperate with Russia on both defense and economic issues despite international condemnation over Ukraine.
The report states that while Russia “probably does not want a direct military conflict with U.S. and NATO forces” there is still potential for that to occur.
Still the report says Russia will likely “employ an array of tools to advance what it sees as its own interests and try to undermine the interests of the United States and its allies.”
And Russia remains one of the “most serious foreign influence threats to the United States.”
Iran
The report discussed the threat from Iran, with the authors saying that Iran will continue to “threaten U.S. interests as it tries to erode U.S. influence in the Middle East.”
The report says Iran’s leadership views itself as “locked in an existential struggle with the United States and its regional allies, while it pursues its longstanding ambitions for regional leadership.”
Iran’s threat to regional stability and its growing knowledge of cyber operations were also cited as risks.
North Korea
As for North Korea, the report states that the regime is continuing to develop nuclear weapons and that leader Kim Jong Un “certainly views nuclear weapons and ICBMs as the ultimate guarantor of his autocratic rule and has no intention of abandoning those programs.”
The report says North Korea’s nuclear capabilities remain a threat and that the country will “increasingly will engage in illicit activities” to fund weapons programs.
Other Issues
Besides signaling out China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, the report detailed threats posted by climate change and environmental degradation, health security, nuclear proliferation, trends in digital authoritarianism, and trans-national organized crime.
It also reviewed conflicts in global hot spots including Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq, and East Africa, as well as reviewing the potential threat of terrorist groups like ISIS.