【Wen/Observer Net, Ruan Jiaqi】

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post, on Monday (February 2), 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."

The report stated that at the hearing held by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) on the same day, participants exaggerated the threat, claiming 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 United States still has significant advantages as a naval power, its position and advantages may 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 United States, stated: "The U.S. has long been promoting 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 hopes that the U.S. will "inject more stability factors into the development of Sino-U.S. relations rather than set obstacles."

Screen capture from the video

The well-known 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, aimed at monitoring the impact of Sino-U.S. trade on the U.S. economy and security. The institution has always held a strong bias against China and is an important part of the U.S. comprehensive and multi-level technological encirclement of China.

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

Rear Admiral Richard Seif, Commander of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, stated that the U.S. has maintained a significant advantage in underwater operations for decades, 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 submarine and conventional submarine forces. Its new nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines are "highly deterrent," representing a "significant leap" in China's capabilities, posing a "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 - making U.S. intervention actions in regional conflicts slower, costlier, and riskier, and expanding 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 of the submarine fleet, ensuring its "readiness for large-scale combat at any time."

Richard Seif

Commander of the U.S. Naval Intelligence Command, Mike Brookes, then 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 aware of its backward 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 "undersea 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 waters.

He evaluated that a seabed sensor system based on fixed and floating platforms for monitoring submarine activity gives China a significant 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 response and ally defense. China's deep-sea capabilities may also threaten the undersea cables and sensor networks vital to communication and military operations."

Mike Brookes

In his testimony, Brooks also specifically emphasized China's deep-sea mining strategy, stating that China has elevated deep-sea mineral development to a national strategy and obtained the largest number of exploration licenses at the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

"China has already dominated the land-based supply chain of critical minerals, and if it extends this dominance to the seabed resource sector, it will not only further consolidate its strategic advantages but also put countries reliant on these minerals for energy transition and defense manufacturing in a dependent position," he continued to hype.

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

He explained, "The seabed mineral sector may become a new arena for geopolitical influence, competition for marine areas, and control over maritime traffic routes between the U.S. and China."

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

He said, "I am deeply concerned about two areas: one is unmanned underwater vehicles, and the other is the 'Transparent Ocean Initiative,' i.e., 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 not yet clear, but the U.S. cannot afford the risk of falling behind.

"This is a race, and we 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 are unwilling to keep up, we will fall behind."

Regarding the issue of undersea cables, USCC vice-chair 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 fiber optic cables, causing the island to go into paralysis, and warned the U.S. that "the window of opportunity is constantly shrinking."

He said seriously, "If China takes action against Taiwan, it just needs to cut three cable clusters to make the island completely fall into 'information darkness.' He also urged the U.S. to increase its 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 smear China's image, referring to conflict behaviors below the threshold of conventional warfare and beyond the boundaries of normal competition, including political interference and cyber attacks.

China has always adhered to a defensive national defense policy, insisting on an active defense military strategy, and high-quality advancement of national defense and military modernization, which is entirely to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and is always a force for world peace, stability, and progress. In contrast, the U.S. maliciously misinterprets China's defense policy, fabricates baseless speculations about China's military development, and vilifies and slanders normal Chinese military construction actions, which have repeatedly caused strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition from China.

According to a report by Bloomberg on February 26, 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 Chinese 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, the Pentagon details the spending plan targeting China, covering upgrades to various intelligence and monitoring systems: $1 billion to improve the U.S. military's classified "offensive cyber operations," another $1 billion allocated to Boeing's classified project operated by the U.S. Space Force - the X-37B orbital test vehicle.

Additionally, $528 million is allocated for expanding a warning spy satellite constellation called "Silent Bucky," which is said to track "Chinese and Russian spacecraft capable of crippling or destroying U.S. satellites."

Furthermore, the document lists $143 million for upgrading U.S. anti-submarine sonar technology, with the related systems being part of an integrated underwater surveillance system that includes underwater sensors for continuous monitoring of enemy submarines.

Regarding this news, at the regular press conference held by 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?" saying that the U.S. strengthens military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region under the pretext of the so-called "China threat," which is not conducive 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 views of the author alone.