US-China conflict not inevitable: Senior Pentagon official
A senior Pentagon official says a conflict between the United States and China is not inevitable, calling on both sides to avoid an unnecessary escalation in tensions.
US Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told a virtual event on Friday that Washington did not believe that a conflict with China was inevitable.
But, she said, both Beijing and Washington have to do their part to avoid a needless escalation in tensions.
“The United States and China have every reason to communicate with each other,” Hicks said, adding that “extreme competition” did not necessarily equate conflict.
She admitted that China had “the economic, military and technological capability to challenge the international system and American interests within it.”
China, she said, could use a broad range of tools, “from routine statecraft through the use of sharp power or gray zone tactics, to the potential for sustained combat operations and an expanded and capable nuclear enterprise.”
She also pointed to china’s growing military, space, and cyber capabilities.
Hicks, however, told the event, which was hosted by the US-based think tank Aspen Institute, that if the US’s “vital interests are threatened, we will ensure the US ability to fight and win.”
Her remarks came just days after Biden told Congress that his administration did not seek conflict with China, but vowed to maintain a military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The president said that he had told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that the US “will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific just as we do with NATO in Europe, not to start conflict, but to prevent conflict.”
This came despite China’s constant warnings against challenging its sovereignty over Chinese Taipei and in areas in the South and East China Seas.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned on Tuesday that US military activity was increasing under Biden.
Wang also reiterated that Beijing “is committed to developing a relationship with the US based on non-conflict and non-confrontation.”
China and the US are at odds over a range of issues, including Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and the South and East China Seas.
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