Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) James Jones has called China the “most serious threat” to US’ global domination. He said that China had been very open about its long-term goal to replace the US as the leading global power. He also opined that the US had allowed things to slide and now China has become powerful enough to compete directly with the US for global domination.
Jones had served as NSA under Barrack Obama. He outlined differences between the philosophies of the US and China and said that China was making rapid strides in emerging technologies with an aim to better monitor and control the online behavior of their citizens.
To buttress his point, Jones pointed to China’s social credit system and said that,
They’re giving grades for citizenship, which will affect the jobs you’re going to hold, the travel you can do and everything else.
Thus, critics of the Chinese government could see their livelihoods being affected.
Jones said that Chinese banks and financial institutions were the Trojan horse of the Chinese government. They would finance even unfeasible projects in different countries. The Chinese banks would invest a lot of money in these projects and use it as leverage to force national governments to toe China’s policy.
Jones said that the US had put human rights on the back-burner and this had given a free run to China. He also asserted that the US should not desist from supporting protests in Hong Kong just because such a move could impact the US-China trade.
Jones said that the US should compete with China for influence across the world. He asserted that the US could beat China in technology.
Jones cautioned that
If China successfully captures the infrastructure aspects of the 5G emergence… that affects the GDP of countries significantly, anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5%.
Finally, Jones expressed confidence that the US philosophy of a more open, connected world would triumph over China’s coercive policies. Thus, the US would beat China in creating global 5G infrastructure.
