The challenges to the U.S. posed by China exceed those of the Cold War, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Wednesday, charging that Beijing's support for Russia's defense industry came directly from China's leadership.
Campbell told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that Washington needed to maintain a bipartisan focus on China and step up the speed of U.S. naval shipbuilding and the capacity of the U.S. defense manufacturing base.
"Frankly, the Cold War pales in comparison to the multifaceted challenges that China presents. It's not just the military challenges. It's across the board. It's in the Global South. It is in technology," Campbell said.
Foreign crises, including Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, have created distractions for Biden's efforts to focus on China and the Indo-Pacific region. Biden vowed early in his administration to not let China surpass the United States as global leader.
China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin, the leaders of the United States' two most powerful rivals, in May pledged a "new era" of partnership, and cast Washington as an aggressive Cold War hegemon.
Campbell, the State Department's No. 2 diplomat, said increasing the speed of U.S. warship output should be of the highest priority over the next decade.
"This is a naval time," Campbell said, calling increasing the speed with which U.S. Navy ships are designed and built "the most important thing that we need to do over the course of the next 10 years."
"The Navy has to step up. We have to step up with them," he said.
Campbell, who met with NATO and EU officials earlier this month to provide allies with details of China's "substantial support" to Russia's military industrial base, has said Russia was in return supporting Beijing with submarine and missile technology.
"The most worrisome thing is that it comes from the very top," Campbell said, referring to senior Chinese leaders' support for Moscow. He added that China has been supporting Russia's drone activity in Ukraine.
