Bayan News – Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. representative for Afghan peace affairs, says that the defense budget of the Biden administration demonstrates that China is the biggest threat to the United States.
According to Afghanistan International, Khalilzad and Robert O’Brien, the national security advisor during the Trump administration, have written a joint article on the website “National Interest” and addressed the question of whether America is prepared to confront China.
They state in the article that in the event of a conflict, the United States does not possess the necessary military readiness to counter China.
The former U.S. official has urged the Biden administration to take steps to rebuild its military capacity and fill the existing gaps.
These two former officials from the Trump administration wrote that not only Russia and China, but also smaller powers perceive America as weakened and take advantage of this situation to expand their own influence.
According to them, the competition between China and the United States is not limited to just Taiwan and the South China Sea. They specifically mentioned the warming relations between Beijing and Middle Eastern countries, writing, “China is expanding its influence in this region with the perception that the United States is withdrawing from the Middle East.”
In the article, they also emphasized that in the event of a conflict, the United States and its allies do not have sufficient military equipment, as the war in Ukraine and Russia has demonstrated the alarming lack of weaponry in the West.
O’Brien and Khalilzad stressed that Biden should increase the budgets of NATO member countries and strengthen relationships with Indo-Pacific countries such as Japan and India.
They also suggested that the United States lead the political fight against China’s political system and preserve the liberal international order.
