(CNN) The Pentagon will focus on building up bases in Guam and Australia to better prepare the US military to counter China, a senior defense official said on Monday.
The moves have been prompted by the Department of Defense's global posture review, which President Joe Biden ordered Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to undertake shortly after taking office in February. Austin started the global posture review in March. The review is classified, but a senior defense official provided some details about the review's findings.
Biden "recently approved" Austin's findings and recommendations from the global posture review, Dr. Mara Karlin, performing the duties of deputy under secretary for policy, said at a briefing on Monday.
The Indo-Pacific region was a major focus, because of Secretary Austin's emphasis on "China as the pacing challenge," for the Department, the senior defense official said.
The Biden administration has made countering China its main foreign policy priority as tensions have increased with Beijing, particularly over the issue of Taiwan and senior Pentagon officials have publicly expressed alarm about China's efforts to upgrade and modernize its military. Last month Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said China had successfully tested a hypersonic missile in what was "very close" to a Sputnik moment.
Linny911 on November 30th, 2021 at 14:36 UTC »
All a waste of time and money unless complete economic disengagement occurs from US and allies against China.
It's so mindboggling that US and allies would enable and continue economic relation with China where it loses out hundreds of billions dollars a year in trade where the only thing China intends to buy are low value natural resources, agricultural goods like soy beans for their pigs, or tech products that they can't steal or develop yet (ie: semiconductors and/or airplanes); get techs stolen; and allow China to have production control over some of their valuable companies (ie: Tesla, Apple etc...), all in pursuit of access to Chinese market where the value to the nation it self nothing compared to cost since access truly comes only with local production in China so all the jobs, tech, and tax revenues stay there (and that's only until domestic company can mature and take over).
After continuing to engaging in this practice of losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year, US and allies talk big about "threat" and spend few billion here and there to counter. Its laughable.
casualrocket on November 30th, 2021 at 12:30 UTC »
Guam is already half military bases
Prophet_Muhammad_phd on November 30th, 2021 at 07:57 UTC »
China will just invest more in anti-ship and other conventional weapons. Perhaps even furthering their nuclear weapons arsenal. They’re not the USSR. Theres no ideological threat from China. They have some legitimate claims here and there. They’re a global powerhouse economically. But they lack might. I also think that even if they had the military capability to do something they wouldn’t out of the sake of self preservation. They can keep trying to build up islands in the SCS but as long as the international community keeps sailing through them they can’t do anything about it short of escalation of violence. Regional actors won’t stand for it either. ASEAN, SEATO, etc. are not going to just let China bully them. They’ve had enough of larger, stronger Asian and European powers do that last century. Hell, if Vietnam was willing to fight China before, they’ll do it again. And with an increase of US interest in the region since 9/11 and no real active deployment by the US military, America is at full strength.
I think this rivalry will be a lot less hot than the Cold War. No proxies even. Just saber rattling until something happens domestically for either country, most likely the US before China.