Beijing 'sees weakness in Biden': former military official warns U.S. ill-prepared to deter China

Former Lt. Col. James Carafano on Wednesday emphasized the threat China poses to American security and lamented that President Joe Biden had shown weakness to Beijing and consequently encouraged its aggressive policies on the world stage.

"Nobody's gonna dispute that China is the defining threat to the United States in the 21st century," he said on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "They are basically the Soviet Union with money. And a lot of people don't talk about this, but China is building out its nuclear deterrent. So it will be a nuclear threat on par with the capabilities the United States and Russia, in actually the very near future."

"This is a country who sees that their rise, and security and power can only come at the expense of diminishing the United States," he continued. "They are our enemy. That's just a fact."

Carafano went on to highlight a string of foreign policy failures of the current administration, emphasizing the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and contending that the administration's support for Ukraine was due to "shame" over that incident.

"Biden ran away in Afghanistan and he was almost shamed into supporting Ukraine, which I do believe is in our interest," Carafano said. "But the Chinese see weakness in Biden and everyday they wake up and they're trying to figure out, 'How can I take advantage of that?'"

"So I really look at the latest Chinese wolf warrior diplomacy not as a sign of things are spinning out of control, but as a sign of the Chinese are always looking at "How can I put one over on Joe Biden?'" he continued.

Carafano went on to address Chinese claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, contending that the U.S. was increasingly ill-suited to deter Beijing against an invasion.

"If we continue on the military trajectory, rather with China building up and us building down, then 10 years from now... China might never have to invade, because they might actually get to the point where the time when you say, 'You know, we can't defend ourselves and we just have to go the way of Hong Kong," he warned.

"What's really going to make a difference is if the United States has the military capacity to deter China," Carafano asserted. He further asserted that the U.S. needed to bolster its navy as a deterrent against Chinese aggression.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.