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William Burns: Under Barack Obama, he was the United States' Deputy Secretary of State
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
From the point of view of the designated head of the US foreign intelligence service, the CIA, William Burns, China is facing its "greatest geopolitical test".
"Trumping China will be crucial to our national security in the coming decades," Burns said at a hearing in the US Senate, which must confirm him for the office.
The former career diplomat was Vice-Secretary of State of the United States under former US President Barack Obama.
While it is in the United States' interests to work with China on climate change and limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, there are more and more areas in which President Xi Jinping's China is a "formidable authoritarian opponent," Burns said.
China is systematically strengthening its ability to steal intellectual property, suppress its own people, intimidate its neighbors, increase its global influence and gain influence in American society.
But China is by no means the only challenge for the USA, Burns made clear and named besides terrorism an aggressive Russia, a “provocative North Korea” and a hostile Iran.
In addition, threats did not only come from individual countries;
there are "problems without a passport" like climate change, health risks or the technological revolution.
The large-scale hacker attack on government institutions and companies was a "brutal wake-up call for all of us," said Burns.
"The CIA will need to hone its skills relentlessly to understand how rivals use cyber and other technological tools, anticipate, detect and prevent their use, and keep a head start on developing them themselves."
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wal / dpa