【By Observer Net, Ruan Jiaqi】

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post, on March 3, on Monday (2nd), a key advisory committee of the U.S. Congress once again promoted the so-called "China threat theory," claiming that as China's maritime capabilities rapidly improve, the U.S. Department of Defense should focus on maintaining an underwater "advantage."

Reports said that at the hearing held by the so-called U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) on that day, participants exaggerated threats, stating that China has invested heavily in submarines, undersea cables, and undersea mining, which may weaken the United States' leading position in underwater warfare.

USCC Chairman Randall Schriver claimed that although the U.S., as a naval power, still has a significant advantage, its status and advantages could be undermined as U.S.-China strategic competition intensifies.

"We must ensure that this area remains a source of American strength and deterrence, not a weakness," he said seriously.

In response, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., stated: "The U.S. has long been hyping up the 'China threat theory,' which is nothing more than an excuse to maintain its hegemony." He emphasized that China is "firmly committed to becoming a force for world peace, stability, and progress," and hoped the U.S. would "add more stability factors to the development of Sino-U.S. relations, rather than set obstacles."

Photo from the scene video

The notorious U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) was established by the U.S. Congress in 2001 against the backdrop of China's accession to the World Trade Organization, aiming to monitor the impact of Sino-U.S. trade on the U.S. economy and security. The agency has long held strong prejudices against China and is an important component of the U.S.'s comprehensive and multi-level technological encirclement of China.

According to reports from the U.S. website "Politico," at the hearing on Monday regarding the underwater competition between the U.S. and China, all parties detailed the current situation where China's underwater capabilities are increasingly narrowing the gap with the U.S.

Rear Admiral Richard Seif, Commander of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, said that for decades, the U.S. has maintained a significant advantage in underwater operations, but China is trying to narrow this gap at an "unprecedented speed and scale."

In his testimony, Seif pointed out that the Chinese Navy is continuously modernizing its nuclear and conventional submarine forces. Its new nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines are "highly deterrent," representing a "significant leap" in China's capabilities, posing a so-called "multi-layered threat" to the U.S. and its interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Seif said, "China's strategic goals are becoming increasingly clear - to make U.S. intervention in regional conflicts slower, more costly, and riskier, and to expand China's control over disputed waters, especially within and outside the first island chain."

He suggested that the U.S. should increase the construction of new submarines, maintain existing ones, expand the size and readiness level of the submarine fleet, and ensure that it can be deployed for large-scale combat at any time.

Richard Seif

U.S. Navy Intelligence Office Commander Mike Brookes, on the other hand, exaggerated China's "remarkable" submarine production capacity. He claimed that if China continues to expand production, the total number of submarines could reach about 80 by 2035, with about half being nuclear submarines.

"China is clearly in a disadvantaged position and is doing everything possible to undermine our leading advantage," he said.

Brooks also added that China's key to achieving underwater sea control is building an "underwater Great Wall," including exploring and mapping the seabed and deploying underwater sensors to monitor the activities of U.S. and Russian nuclear submarines near China's coastal areas.

He evaluated that a seabed sensor system relying on fixed and floating platforms to monitor submarine activities gives China a distinct advantage in battlefield awareness.

Brooks claimed, "By 2040, China's underwater combat forces may pose a substantive challenge to the U.S. underwater dominance, increasing the complexity of crisis management and ally defense. China's deep-sea capabilities could also threaten the undersea cables and sensor networks vital to communication and military operations."

Mike Brookes

In his testimony, Brooks specifically emphasized China's deep-sea mining strategy, claiming that China has elevated deep-sea mineral development to a national strategy and obtained the most exploration licenses from the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

"China has already dominated the land-based supply chains of key minerals through mining, processing, and downstream manufacturing," he continued to hype, "extending this dominance to the seabed resources would not only further consolidate its strategic advantages but could also leave countries dependent on these minerals for energy transition and defense manufacturing in a passive position."

Seaver Wang, director of climate and energy at the think tank "Breakthrough Institute," also said that developing seabed minerals could help enhance the U.S. supply chain security in nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper.

He explained, "The seabed mineral sector may become a new battleground for geopolitical influence and control over oceanic regions and maritime traffic routes between the U.S. and China."

Michael Horowitz, director of the Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania, expressed concerns about China's progress in unmanned submersibles and quantum sensing technology, which can be used to detect and track submarines.

He said, "I am deeply concerned about China's progress in two areas: one is unmanned submersibles, and the other is the 'Transparent Ocean Initiative,' or the expansion of sensing capabilities, which could reshape the balance of naval power in the Indo-Pacific region."

Seif then added that the gap between the U.S. and China in applying artificial intelligence and quantum technologies in the submarine field is unclear, but the U.S. cannot afford to fall behind.

"This is a race, and we only know they are investing huge amounts of money, but we don't know where we stand in this race," he said, "If we cannot or refuse to keep up, we will fall behind."

Regarding the issue of undersea cables, USCC vice chairman Michael Kuiken immediately brought up the Taiwan issue. Hudson Institute senior researcher Jason Hsu also claimed that mainland China could disable Taiwan's undersea internet cables, causing it to go offline, and warned the U.S. that "the window of opportunity is constantly shrinking."

He said seriously, "If China takes action against Taiwan, cutting three cable clusters would plunge the island into 'information darkness.' He also encouraged the U.S. to increase deterrence against China's so-called 'gray zone' tactics."

The so-called "gray zone" is one of the narratives deliberately fabricated by the U.S. to defame China, referring to conflict behaviors that fall below the threshold of conventional warfare but exceed normal competitive boundaries, including political interference and cyber attacks.

China has always adhered to a defensive national defense policy, upholding an active defense military strategy, and advancing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces at high quality, all aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests. China has always been a force for world peace, stability, and progress. In contrast, the U.S. maliciously misinterprets China's defense policy, fabricates speculation about China's military development, and vilifies normal Chinese military construction actions, which have repeatedly caused strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition from China.

According to Bloomberg News on the 26th, a recent budget document submitted to the U.S. Congress shows that the Pentagon plans to invest an additional $12.6 billion to strengthen monitoring of China's military exercises, submarine movements, and satellite activities. U.S. media speculate that this move is intended to "counter China's unprecedented military buildup in the Asia-Pacific region."

In the 85-page budget document obtained by Bloomberg News, the Pentagon detailed its spending plan targeting China, covering upgrades to various intelligence and monitoring systems: $1 billion for improving the U.S. military's secret "offensive cyber operations," and another $1 billion for Boeing's secret project operated by the U.S. Space Force - the X-37B orbital test vehicle.

Additionally, $528 million was allocated to expand the "Silent Bucker" early warning spy satellite constellation, which is said to track "Chinese and Russian spacecraft capable of disabling or destroying U.S. satellites."

Moreover, the document listed $143 million for upgrading the U.S. anti-submarine sonar technology, with the related systems being part of an integrated underwater surveillance system that includes seabed sensors to continuously monitor enemy submarines.

Regarding this news, at the regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on February 27, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning responded to a question from foreign reporters asking, "What is China's comment on this?" She stated that the U.S. is strengthening its military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region under the pretext of the so-called "China threat," which is detrimental to regional peace and stability and does not serve the interests of regional countries.

This article is exclusive to Observer Net and may not be reprinted without permission.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7612910548423377449/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.