The intelligence community warned that the deepening relations between Russia and China could pose a risk to the United States’s national security.
During a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the intelligence officials revealed their assessment that China’s relations with Russia could be aimed at weakening the U.S.
“Despite global backlash over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China will maintain its diplomatic, defense, economic, and technology cooperation with Russia to continue trying to challenge the United States, even as it will limit public support,” according to the intelligence community’s threat assessment, the New York Times reported.
When asked if the China-Russia relations are a temporary affair between the two countries, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told senators that it had some limitations.
Haines argued that the intelligence community doesn’t see the two countries becoming allies like the U.S. have with NATO.
The top intelligence official also suggested that China feels uneasy about providing support to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine after the Biden administration warned of consequences if Beijing proceeds to send lethal aid.
However, Haines warned that China is the U.S.’s most serious national security threat in the long run.
“The People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly challenging the United States economically, technologically, politically and militarily around the world, remains our unparalleled challenge,” Haines said.
Despite being seen as a top security threat, China is still intent on keeping its relations with the U.S.
Haines said Chinese President Xi Jinping wanted stable relations with the U.S. to focus on managing domestic problems, noting that the Asian country faces economic uncertainties.
On Monday, China’s top leaders accused the U.S. of leading the containment and suppression of their economy.
In his address to China’s National People’s Political Consultative Conference, Xi said the U.S. and its Western allies had brought “unprecedented severe challenges” to the Chinese economy.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang echoed Xi’s remarks, urging the U.S. to “meet halfway” and cooperate with them based on mutual interests.
Qin also dampened fears about China-Russia relations, saying that it doesn’t threaten any country in the world.
China-Russia relations had been under intense scrutiny after the U.S. accused Beijing of planning to send lethal assistance to Russia.
While the U.S. and its allies had not found evidence of Chinese aid to Russia thus far, they assessed it as not yet off the table.
China had already denied such claims and turned the table on the U.S. as the country that endlessly sends weapons to the Ukrainian battlefield.
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