Navy Secretary Calls China ‘Greatest Threat’ to U.S.

Oct. 29, 2020 (EIRNS)—Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite is an enthusiastic passenger aboard Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s anti-China bandwagon. After a week-long tour of the Asia-Pacific, Braithwaite took his message to the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. “I think [China] is probably the greatest threat to our country that Americans, writ large, do not understand,” Braithwaite declared, reported Military.com, with apparent religious fervor. “I literally believe with all my heart and soul—and I can’t stress this any more—what we are seeing emerging is a threat beyond any comparison ever in the history of our country,” he said fervently.

“There could be a day in our lifetime, my dear friends, that we will not have the freedom to speak our language the way that we do, to live with free and open society, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to congregate—all those things can be eliminated,” he streamed.

But the “threat” isn’t just military. China has to be kept out of the Arctic, not because it might deploy its Navy there but because it’ll be financially lucrative for China to move its product through Arctic waters, which Braithwaite said will be “the big threat.” “Adversaries in the past didn’t have the economic wherewithal, the financial capability, to build what China’s building today,” he said.

Braithwaite complained that China took advantage of all the time the U.S. sea services were distracted by the counter-terrorism/counter-insurgency wars in the Middle East to focus on becoming a leading nation of the world. “We can’t say that in America [with] all the domestic quarreling and the divisiveness in our nation right now,” Braithwaite said. “We need to understand that the threat is not from within. ... It could affect our children and our children’s children and their ability to live in a free society. It is an unbelievable threat to our way of life.”