As China gears up for war, the United States is … getting left behind.
As seen in a new report from the Washington Free Beacon, the federal government under Biden is making budget cuts that will result in the premature retirement of nearly a dozen ships while also removing missile systems that currently deter Chinese aggression at sea.
All this comes as China, on the other hand, is increasing its building of naval ships.
Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) blasted the administration’s decision.
“The Biden Administration’s defense budget would hollow out our fleet and scrap Navy radars and missile systems we desperately need to deter China,” Wicker told the Free Beacon. “Prematurely retiring our ships sends exactly the wrong signal to China as they continue to build their own Navy at a historic pace.”
The Biden budget would cause the loss of 600 vertical missile systems and retire at least 11 ships, while only ordering the building of nine new ones. This would put the United States at a numerical disadvantage to Beijing.
Currently, the United States has 294 battle force ships, which is lower than the 355 the country is supposed to have by law. Meanwhile, China has a fleet of 340, ships and is expected to have more than 400 by 2025 — part of a plan for fast growth that also includes supplying its military with a fresh stock of surface combat missiles and guided-missile destroyers.
The budget also cuts spending on naval reactors by 5.6 percent, or $1.96 billion over last year’s budget. Naval reactors are used to power nuclear submarines.
Furthermore, Biden’s budget tosses aside the Marine Corps’ request for at least 31 more amphibious warships — three of which are being retired — which would play an important role in a potential war with China. The Pentagon has reportedly balked at the idea of shifting focus away from the Middle East and toward the Pacific.
The Free Beacon reports:
Biden’s budget flattens the Navy’s shipbuilding request, providing just 2.5 percent growth over last year’s budget, a figure that does not keep up with inflation. The total new ship requests will also shrink from 12 to 9 and includes a halt in future years on construction of rescue and salvage ships, fast transport ships, and amphibious warfare ships, according to Wicker’s office.
Rebeccah Heinrichs, a national security analyst with the Hudson Institute think tank, said the Biden administration “seems to be under the illusion that the PRC will be deterred by strongly worded government reports and joint pressers with allies.”
“Navy and Marine leaders have said what they need to do that, and this White House has decided they know better,” she said. “There is no way around the fact that building the Navy this country needs to deter China, and to win if war comes, will cost Americans money.”
Recently, China expert Nikolai Vavilov said on Russian state TV that Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing for war.
“Since coming to power, comrade Xi has been getting ready for war,” Vavilov said. “He gave an order to prepare an army that is capable of winning war. Xi Jinping has no doubts about the plans of Americans.”
While America’s foreign-policy establishment is only now wising up to the potential of military conflict between the United States and China, anyone could have seen it coming a mile away. China has been waging unrestricted warfare against America for decades; its continuous efforts to spy on our citizens and to gain control over every aspect of our society are part of that warfare.
The fact that Biden is gutting America’s naval capabilities while China is growing theirs in anticipation of war with the United States shows that either the administration does not take the threat seriously or they are in Beijing’s pocket.
Building up America’s Navy is not a matter of war-hawking or ceding to the military-industrial complex. It’s a matter of peace through strength.
As this author has written before, China isn’t foolish enough to strike first unless it knows that it can do so without bringing calamity on itself. Thus, it will avoid open military action against the United States so long as it believes that America’s military capabilities are still strong.
And naval supremacy is key to military supremacy. As Alfred Thayer Mahan argued in his groundbreaking work The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, naval power is an indispensable factor for a nation to remain a powerful state.
It has been the case throughout history that whoever rules the seas rules the world. In the modern era, the British were the exemplars par excellence of this principle. Both they and other great maritime powers, such as the Dutch, demonstrated that for the purpose of consolidating and maintaining a transcontinental empire, naval power is more important than the strength of their standing army.
The Venetians proved this same principle in the Medieval world. Despite being a mere Italian city state, Venice ruled over a vast empire. The unmatched ability of the Venetian navy was such that even the mighty Ottoman Empire, which had one of the most powerful armies in the world at the time, feared meeting Venice at sea.
By depleting the U.S. Navy, Biden is giving China an open invitation to attack.
