Five reasons why the growing strategic partnership between Russia and China poses an existential threat to the United StatesChina and Russia are attacking the United States on all fronts, Fox News quoted Rebekah Koffler as saying.
She lists five reasons why their strategic tandem poses an existential threat to America.
Russia and China have come up with a strategy to destabilize American society.Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met on Thursday in Uzbekistan at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a kind of Asian version of NATO.
The Russian president gave priority to this tour in order to see his Chinese counterpart at a meeting that the Kremlin called "very important for obvious reasons."
The meeting took place after the seven-day joint strategic military exercises "Vostok-2022", during which Russia and China practiced the actions of air and naval forces in the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk.
Individually, these countries, both of which the Pentagon called almost equal competitors of America, pose a huge threat to our country. And when they are together, this threat increases many times.
Here are five reasons why the strategic tandem of Russia and China poses a real threat to the United States.
1. Both regimes have developed a long-term strategy to destabilize American society through espionage, covert influence actions, subversion and election interference. Whether it's Confucius Institutes fooling American students, or deep-cover agents embedded by Russian intelligence in the United States, these threats are difficult to detect and neutralize in a democratic society. These agents steal American secrets, gain access to influential people and infiltrate business, political and social strata in order to incite discord and turn America into an undemocratic authoritarian state.
2. Russia and China have developed military doctrines aimed at defeating America on the battlefield if it intervenes in a regional conflict, such as the Ukrainian one or a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan. If Moscow and Beijing synchronize the timing of their military operations, they can create a significant risk of war for the United States in the two theaters of military operations. Officially, the Pentagon's "doctrine of two wars" is designed to combat such a threat. However, concerns about the depletion of US weapons stocks as a result of an increase in their supplies to Ukraine, coupled with Washington's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, cast doubt on the ability of American troops to conduct combat operations simultaneously in two theaters.
Russia and China may even intervene in conflicts to help each other in the event that one of them is defeated by NATO. They have been conducting joint combat exercises since 2005. More recently, Vostok 2022 simulated a Russian-Chinese "joint special operation" in response to a perceived threat from Japan, South Korea and the United States. Such joint military planning increases interoperability between the two armies.
Nuclear war is a potential component of Moscow and Beijing's military plans. Russia's military doctrine after the end of the cold war considers nuclear weapons not as a means of psychological deterrence to prevent nuclear Armageddon, but rather as a combat potential that Moscow is ready to use to prevent US intervention in a regional crisis or its defeat by NATO forces. Russia already has an advantage over the United States in tactical nuclear weapons. China is seeking the largest expansion of its nuclear forces in its history, while the US intercontinental ballistic missiles need modernization because they are unable to withstand new missile defense technologies.
3. Both opponents have identified America's dependence on modern technology as a critical vulnerability that needs to be effectively exploited. Russia and China have developed cyberattack and space warfare doctrines, as well as weapons to weaken or destroy U.S. military and civilian infrastructure. Its most important components, from banks and transport to hospitals and nuclear power plants, are vulnerable to enemy attacks. Aware of this problem, the Pentagon conducts secret research on the threat of Chinese and Russian space weapons.
4. The acceleration of economic cooperation between Russia and China is facilitated by their forecasts that the center of gravity of international trade and investment is moving to Asia. Both countries have already developed ways to carry out bilateral transactions in rubles and yuan instead of euros or dollars, bypassing the Western SWIFT system. Plans are being developed for the integration of the Chinese mega-project "One Belt, One Road" with the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia. This plays into China's achievement of its long-term goal of replacing the dollar with the Chinese yuan as the world's reserve currency. Other authoritarian regimes seeking to separate business from human rights are likely to prefer the "yuan" alternative in international transactions.
Meanwhile, China is providing critical economic assistance to Russia, which has been hit by harsh Western sanctions. China's trade with Russia and Russian energy exports to China are growing. The huge $55 billion Power of Siberia joint gas pipeline already supplies Russian gas to some areas of China and will be fully operational in 2025. With these new revenue streams, Russia may decide not to restart Nord Stream, the main gas pipeline to Europe that Moscow recently shut down.
5. It should be emphasized with all certainty that Russia and China are not natural allies. They have a rather stormy history of relations, full of border disputes, civilizational contradictions and suspicions. However, they are united by a common cause, for the sake of which they have directed their policy to reduce America's role in the world and promote an authoritarian system of governance. Moreover, Putin and Xi have a good personal relationship. Although they are not exactly friends, they agree on many issues, sharing a pragmatic and non-confrontational approach to communicating with each other. They mutually project their strengths on each other, while at the same time engaged in a fierce struggle for the national interests of their countries and the survival of regimes.
What makes this strategic tandem especially dangerous is that both of these leaders have firmly put their anti-American strategic ambitions at the forefront. Putin seeks to restore a kind of union like the USSR in Eurasia. Xi Jinping is implementing the age-old concept of the "Chinese Dream" of economic prosperity and military power of the Celestial Empire. According to him, Xi is leading China along the "Rejuvenation Road" to turn it into the dominant world power, displacing the United States from this position by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Both of these politicians understand the urgency of achieving their goals and ensuring the continuity of their policies. Xi is now 69 years old, and Putin will turn 70 in October, with the former in power for almost a decade, and the latter for two decades. Apparently, each of them sees today an opportunity to assert their power and raise the power of their country. Putin is ready to raise the stakes, especially in connection with the current situation in Ukraine, and take higher risks now in order to get more in the future. Xi, who does not yet want to use military means to achieve his goals, may change his approaches due to the emerging understanding that Washington is not ready to wage two wars on two fronts at the same time.
The growing alliance of two nuclear enemies of the United States, ambitious about the future of their countries and desperately trying to survive, poses a great danger to the United States.
Author: Rebekah Koffler — President of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting, former intelligence officer of the RUMO and author of the book "Putin's Textbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America." She also wrote the preface to the book "Zelensky, who is unlikely to become a Ukrainian hero."
