China is "unparalleled priority" among world threats, top U.S. intelligence officials say

Top officials from the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities told a Senate panel on Wednesday that a "shifting landscape" of quick-moving and interconnected global threats – ranging from climate change to cyberattacks – would mean agencies will need to reframe some of their approach to issues of national security.  

No threat, they said, looms larger or thornier than the one posed by China, which Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines called an "unparalleled priority" and a "formidable challenge."   "China increasingly is a near-peer competitor challenging the United States in multiple arenas, while pushing to revise global norms in ways that favor the authoritarian Chinese system," Haines said in prepared opening remarks.