Challenges to the US posed by China exceed those of the Cold War. This was stated by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, quoted by "Reuters".
He charged that Beijing's support for Russia's defense industry comes directly from China's leadership.
Although President Joe Biden's administration has been adamant it is not seeking a cold war with China, a growing number of analysts and members of the US Congress say the escalating global competition between the two superpowers resembles a different but new style of cold war. war.
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Campbell said Washington should maintain a bipartisan focus on China and increase the speed of US military shipbuilding and the capacity of the US defense manufacturing base.
"Frankly, the Cold War pales in comparison to the multifaceted challenges that China presents. It's not just the military challenges. They are everywhere. It's in the Global South. It's in the technology," Campbell summed up.
Foreign crises, including Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, have distracted Biden's efforts to focus on China and the Indo-Pacific region. At the start of his term, he pledged not to allow China to overtake the United States as world leader.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin - the leaders of the United States' two most powerful rivals - promised in May a "new era" of partnership and presented Washington as an aggressive Cold War hegemon.
Campbell, the State Department's No. 2 diplomat, said increasing the speed of U.S. warship production should be a top priority over the next decade.
"This is naval time," he stressed, calling increasing the speed at which US Navy ships are designed and built "the most important thing we have to do in the next 10 years.
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"The Navy must be strengthened. We must strengthen ourselves with them," he insisted.
Campbell, who met NATO and EU officials earlier this month to provide allies with details of the "substantial support" to China for the Russian military industrial base, noted that Russia in return supports Beijing with submarine and missile technology.
"The most worrying thing is that this is coming from the very top," Campbell pointed out, referring to the support of senior Chinese leaders for Moscow. He added that China supported Russia's drone activity in Ukraine.