Pentagon to build up US bases in Guam and Australia to meet China challenge

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by The-small-mammoth

(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

The-small-mammoth on November 30th, 2021 at 03:50 UTC »

SS: This is basically the result of global posture review which Biden ordered Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to undertake after taking the office. The findings and recommendations from the global posture review were recently approved.

To counter China, the review directs the Department to enhance "infrastructure in Guam and Australia," and to prioritize "military construction across the Pacific Islands," the official said, as well as "seeking greater regional access for military partnership activities."

On Russia, the Department declined to provide specific information about how the global posture review is directing the US military to prepare to counter threats from Moscow. Broadly speaking, one of the goals of the review is to "re-establish readiness standards," so that the US military is "agile and responsive to crises as they emerge," the official said.

In the Middle East, the review directed the Department to "continue to support the defeat ISIS campaign," with the current US military presence in Iraq and Syria, as well as continuing to work on building up "the capacity of partner forces," in those countries. But overall, the review directs Austin to "conduct additional analysis on enduring posture requirements in the Middle East," the official said.

Overall, the US had "something like 75 consultations," with allies and partners when putting together the review, among them "NATO allies, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and over a dozen partners across the Middle East and Africa," Karlin said.

Update: Chinese state media article:

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1240312.shtml

In response to the review, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine press conference on Tuesday that the review fully exposed the US' true intention of militarizing the Indo-Pacific and sparing no effort to encircle and contain China.

"We firmly oppose the US using the 'China threat theory' as an excuse to increase military funding, expand military strength and maintain military hegemony," Zhao said, demanding the US give up its Cold War mentality of creating imaginary enemies and stop making statements and actions that threaten international peace and stability.

Another reason is that the US is nervous about the Chinese military's rapid development, and it thinks that China will challenge its hegemony when China becomes strong, Shi Hong, executive chief editor of the Chinese magazine Shipborne Weapons, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

By focusing on Guam, Australia and the Pacific Islands, the US is admitting that China has become powerful enough to break the first island chain, so it is now stepping back to the second island chain, Shi said.

If the US still believes in its absolute strength, the US should enhance its deterrence in places like the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and the island of Taiwan in order to contain China, Shi said, noting that by staying farther away from China, the US has more defense lines and strategic depth, and this is an indication that the US is taking China very seriously as a powerful opponent.