On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said that it is “technically true” that China is preparing for war with the U.S. and that China is throwing its weight around globally and “the threat of their military is one aspect of that.” But it was “very dangerous and very irresponsible” for 2024 GOP presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to say so because “it implies that China’s getting ready to launch a war with us, and that’s not actually what’s going on.” And a war between the U.S. and China isn’t inevitable.
Smith said, “I think that is a very dangerous and very irresponsible way to put it. I mean, it’s technically true, okay, in the sense that China’s worried about us and we’re worried about them and we’re building national security and defenses on both sides, contemplating, if a conflict came, how would we deal with it? And also up front to have sufficient weapons, sufficient defense to deter that conflict. But the way Nikki Haley put it, it implies that China’s getting ready to launch a war with us, and that’s not actually what’s going on.”
He continued, “China is trying to bully their way into much of the world. Taiwan is the most obvious example. … But China’s also threatening the sovereignty and integrity of at least a half-dozen nations around them from India, to the Philippines, to Indonesia, they’re trying to push their way in. Globally, they’re even overfishing in as far away as around Latin America, and they’re trying to use their power to do that, and the threat of their military is one aspect of that. We need to build a coalition to push back on that. We don’t need to be talking about war as if it is inevitable. That is a very dangerous way to put it.”
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