In an agenda-setting Communist Party Congress in October, President Xi Jinping said China has now entered a “new era” where the country will prize quality growth over quantity. (AP photo)
The Pentagon on Friday accused China and Russia of having taking actions which undermine the very international norms that both of them have prospered from. It was responding to questions on the recently released National Defence Strategy (NDS) which identified Russia and China as a major competitive adversary to the US.
“The NDS is about near-peer competitors, China and Russia. Both countries have taken actions which undermine the very international norms that, in fact, both of them have prospered from,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told reporters. She said the US is going to continue to ensure that it is “never in a fair fight, that we maintain a competitive advantage”.
“But to do that, we also need to ensure that we have a budget, and we have a commitment to growth in that budget,” White said. “The US can’t implement a strategy that doesn’t have a budget. So it’s important that we move at the speed of relevancy. And the NDS is about that,” she said. White said, “it is not about a Cold War” but about looking towards the future.
“And as we look to the future, China and Russia we have to think about them because they are undercutting the very international norms that they’ve thrived upon,” she said.