On Wednesday, March 29th, the House Armed Services Committee conducted oversight of Department of Defense programs and activities at a hearing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. Members pressed Secretary Austin and General Milley on the threat China poses to the United States and what we're doing to deter China's growing influence and military capabilities.
On the Threat China Poses to Our Nation:
In an exchange with Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), General Milley remarked,"[China has] a national goal to be a global — to be the global — coequal with the United States and superior militarily by mid-century. They're on that path to do that and that's really disturbing. That's really bothersome. We're going to have to not only keep pace, but we have to outpace that, and that will assure the peace."
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) delivered a sobering analysis of the threat the U.S. is facing from the Chinese Communist Party. Rep. Wittman showed the alarming growth of China's capabilities from 1999 to today, as well as unnerving projections for 2025. Rep. Wittman maintained that "today we face the threat of our lifetime, the CCP is indeed that…we see the expansionist efforts by the Chinese Communist Party."
On Securing our Supply Chain:
Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN) pressed Secretary Austin on DoD efforts to secure our supply chain from China.
On Deterring China:
In his opening remarks, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) made it clear that we must invest in "the men and women of our armed services and the modernization of our conventional and strategic deterrent," in order to maintain readiness in the face of China's aggression.
In an exchange with Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL), General Milley said, "That's the reality of it. Our military, capability wise, can fight in a lot of places with different types of contingencies. But if you're talking about a serious conflict with a major great power war, realistically putting both China and Russia together is a very very difficult thing." Chairman Rogers responded, "That's the thing the committee needs to take note of and the Congress is that for the first 15 years I was here, we had a strategy that allowed us to fight two wars simultaneously and successfully defend the homeland. We have already had to drop that down to just one theatre which is scary enough and I worry that if we do have a disruption in our funding, our authorization, it could further erode that capability."
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) emphasized bipartisan support to turn Taiwan into a porcupine and pressed Secretary Austin on whether he is personally engaged in the effort to deliver a deterrence by denial capability. Secretary Austin responded, "Absolutely.There is not a week that goes by that I am not talking to commanders and staff on the problem's, the challenges, that we face with China, me personally, and so that is a part of our battle rhythm for lack of a better term and again I think that that's what it's gonna take to do the kind of things that you just described."
In an exchange with Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Secretary Austin stated,"We need to make sure that we maintain a combat credible force that can deter any adversary from making a bad decision on any given day."
