America's greatest threat

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, has named the country that poses the “greatest threat” to Washington in the next decade, and it is not North Korea.

Speaking before the US Senate Armed Services Committee on September 26, General Joseph Dunford stated: "I believe that by 2025, China could be the biggest threat to the United States."

This was also Mr. Dunford's answer after receiving a question from Senator Mazie Hirono about the fact that in 2015, this general had identified Russia, followed by China and North Korea, as the biggest military threat to US national security.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford. Photo: Reuters

CNN (US) reported on September 26 that General Dunford considered North Korea "the greatest danger today" because of the "urgency" stemming from Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

Besides, General Dunford said that Russia is still the "biggest military threat" because of its potential in the fields of nuclear weapons and electronic warfare.

But Mr. Dunford asserted that China will become the biggest threat by 2025. “If I look at 2025, when I look at the economic situation and the demographics, China is probably the biggest threat to us.”

“China is focused on limiting our expeditionary capabilities and weakening our allies in the Pacific,” Dunford said. “Chinese leaders appear to favor increased defense spending.”

The Pentagon's 2017 assessment of China's military capabilities found that from 2007 to 2016, Beijing's defense budget increased by an average of 8.5% each year.

General Dunford believes that in the situation of Russia and China modernizing their military, in the next 5 years the US must increase its defense budget by about 3% to 7% to maintain competition.

In August, General Dunford visited Beijing and reached an agreement with the Chinese military to ensure “better communication” between the two countries.

Speaking at the time, General Dunford said the communication agreement would help the US and China reduce the possibility of “miscalculation” and he noted that there were many difficult issues on which Beijing and Washington “do not necessarily see eye to eye.”

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper