"China Increasingly Becoming A Near-Peer Competitor": Top US Intel Officer

China, Avril Haines said, is employing a comprehensive approach to demonstrate its growing strength and compel regional neighbours to acquiesce to Beijing's preferences.

China is increasingly becoming a near-peer competitor of the US, posing challenges in multiple domains, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system, a top American intelligence officer has told lawmakers. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday briefed members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the worldwide threat assessment of the US. "China increasingly is a near-peer competitor, challenging the United States in multiple areas while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favour the authoritarian Chinese system," she said. China, she said, is employing a comprehensive approach to demonstrate its growing strength and compel regional neighbours to acquiesce to Beijing's preferences, including its claims over disputed territory and assertions of sovereignty over Taiwan.