US expert declares China more dangerous than the Soviet Union

US experts say they must change strategy if they still want to surpass China

The United States confronted the Soviet Union by trying to surpass it in military power through economic and technological advances. A new study by former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work and his former Defense Department colleague Greg Grant argues that China has both the will and the ability to do the same to the United States, and if Washington wants to maintain its hegemonic position, it needs to change its plans and strategies.

“The Soviet Union never matched, let alone surpassed, the United States in technological superiority,” the authors wrote in a report published by the Center for a New American Security. “But the same cannot be said for China.”

The two authors argue that the United States could become “the victim of a deliberate, patient, and dynamic Chinese strategy of military technological superiority.”

The United States has not faced a competitor with a GDP greater than 40% of its own in more than a century. But today China’s GDP is 63% of America’s, and it is likely that the Chinese economy will surpass America’s to become the world’s largest economy within the next decade.

“It is unlikely that the United States can simply spend money to overcome the technological challenge from China” as it did with the Soviet Union, the report said, stressing that the US needs “more aggressive innovation and improvement to stay ahead of China.”

While working for the US Department of Defense, Mr. Work participated in the “Third Offset Strategy” project, a strategic move to not only restore but also maintain America’s fundamental advantages over rival powers, especially China.

This approach never received the necessary support under President Barack Obama because of fears of sparking an arms race or a new cold war.

In a recent interview, Mr. Work criticized the previous administration’s hesitation. “I tried to inject a sense of urgency that we couldn’t afford to delay any longer. Every day we waited, we fell a little further behind,” he told The Washington Post.

A report to Congress last year containing the Trump administration's assessment of its national defense strategy warned of new challenges posed by America's adversaries, calling attention to the erosion of America's edge as rival powers such as Russia and China have learned to counter America's advanced capabilities while developing high-tech combat capabilities previously reserved for the United States.

“Put bluntly, the US military could lose a state-versus-state war,” the report from the National Defense Strategy Commission reads.

Earlier this year, the Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lieutenant General Robert Ashley, wrote a letter accompanying a report on China's growing military capabilities, saying that China is “on the cusp of fielding some of the most advanced weapons systems in the world.”

The US intelligence chief added that, “China is building a dynamic, lethal military force with capabilities spanning the air, sea, space and information space.”