In a recent interview with Breitbart News, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe expressed support for the Central Intelligence Agency's establishing of a section focused on the Chinese threat, adding that the action is in line with what he started during the Trump administration.
In the interview, Ratcliffe said, "I'm delighted they're coming around to our way of thinking on this and being honest about China as the threat that they genuinely are."
Critics of the Trump administration had accused him of focusing on China to downplay the threat from Russia at the time, but he claimed the CIA's move proves his fears were well-founded.
In recent weeks, bipartisan anxiety has grown as China has increased its military activities near Taiwan, a self-governing island with a strong democratic government and a strong informal connection with the United States that China deems to be part of its territory.
China made a tremendous show of force against Taiwan on October 4 by deploying 39 airplanes into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone, then two days later launched 52 more warplanes into Taiwan's ADIZ.
The CIA announced the formation of the "China Mission Center" a few days later. The New York Times speculated that it was a continuation of the Obama administration's efforts.
During Ratcliffe's tenure, he initiated substantial measures to realign the intelligence community (IC) away from its post-9/11 counterterrorism focus and toward great power confrontation with China.
For example, Ratcliffe increased the IC’s China budget by 20 percent.
"When people ask why I did it, I tell them it was because no one would allow me to increase it by 40%." For both the national intelligence program and the military intelligence program, I had an annual budget of $85 billion. 'Whatever we're spending on combating China, it's not enough,' I said. More people are beginning to agree with me on that," he remarked.
Ratcliffe also made history by becoming the first director of national intelligence to write an op-ed while in office, warning the American people about China's threat. On December 3, 2020, he authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
Ratcliffe also fought back against analysts in the intelligence community who attempted to downplay intelligence on Chinese efforts to sway the 2020 election.
He wanted a report on foreign influence attempts due to Congress that appropriately reflected the ongoing dispute among analysts about the importance of Chinese influence activities. There was also debate about whether the report should include a section on China. Radcliffe was concerned that proper tradecraft, which would reflect the disagreement, would not be followed because of fear that it would provide a possible political talking point for then-President Donald Trump.
Later, the IC's analytic ombudsman discovered that intelligence analysts had politicized China reporting and were hesitant to publish it because they disagreed with Trump's views.
Ratcliffe also informed lawmakers of Chinese influence activities targeting members of Congress at a rate six times higher than Russia's and 12 times higher than Iran's. Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), criticized him, accusing him of using China as a political ploy to appease Trump and divert attention away from Russia.
Although Russia poses a national security threat in many respects, according to Ratcliffe, it is not the existential threat that China poses.
"At the moment, China boasts the world's largest navy." There isn't a single operational aircraft carrier in Russia. Some people have always been so dishonest and reckless in downplaying the threat of China in order to make it appear as if Russia was our top national security issue," he said.
"History will look back on Ratcliffe's tenure as DNI as the moment the US Intelligence Community shifted from its post-9/11 focus on counterterrorism to an era of great power competition with China," said Cliff Sims, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Strategy and Communications, in a statement to Breitbart News.
'It’s great to see that shift continue now. The intelligence is crystal clear that the CCP represents our greatest national security challenge,” he added.
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