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Gordon Chang urged the United States to treat China as an “enemy combatant” Thursday, warning that Chinese submarines are operating “very close” to the U.S. homeland as Beijing reportedly expands its undersea footprint.
“Obviously, they do want subs to be able to get closer to the U.S.,” the Gatestone Institute senior fellow told “Mornings with Maria.”
“And, by the way, we have Chinese submarines in the Arctic, which would be very, very close to Alaska and the homeland, so this is really an important development, and we have got to make sure that we have the attack subs that can take out those ballistic missile submarines of the Chinese.”
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Chang’s warning comes after a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. adversary is “developing new submarine technology and a bigger, better fleet that is gaining on the United States and its allies.”
His warning also comes as China plans to send a special envoy to the Middle East for what Beijing describes as mediation efforts, as joint U.S.-Israeli strikes continue targeting Iranian regime sites.
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“That envoy is going to try to stop the United States from attacking Iran,” Chang warned.
“Clearly, what we should be doing is ignoring this guy. The Chinese are an enemy combatant. That’s the way we should treat them.”
Chang argued that Beijing is not acting as a neutral broker, but as a key backer of Tehran, allegedly supplying weapon components while increasing commodity purchases and offering diplomatic and propaganda support.
“Last year, 87.2% of Iran’s exports accrued went to China. It’s across-the-board support,” he said.
“So the United States just needs to say, ‘Look, we want to stop this.’ We have to also impose costs on China.”
