Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, known as the architect of the Obama-era “pivot to Asia,” 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.
“This is a naval time,” Campbell said, according to Reuters, and he called for increasing the speed with which the U.S. Navy’s ships are designed and built “the most important thing that we need to do over the course of the next 10 years.” He also repeated the neocon mantra that China is supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Reuters reported with delight: “Campbell said a summit of the Quad countries—Australia, India, Japan and the United States—that Biden will host on Saturday [Sept. 21] would include ‘big announcements’ showing substantial progress to help Pacific and Southeast Asian nations track illegal fishing fleets, most of which were Chinese. He also mentioned plans for discussions on stepped-up security cooperation in the Indian Ocean involving India and other countries. He said U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo had been asked to help ‘fuse together our national military approach, security approach’ there. ‘This is the new frontier, working more closely with a partner like India in the Indian Ocean,’ he said.”
