Defense officials are now prohibited from speaking publicly about military competition with China, according to the Navy Times.
New directives from the National Security Council (NSC) demand that Pentagon officials replace the phrase “great power competition” with something less likely to aggravate China in official statements, according to sources who spoke with the Navy Times.
Leading up to the change in NSC regulations were the written comments of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, who described China and Russia as rising challengers reigniting the old fires of “great power competition” in a maritime strategy report in January.
“For the first time in 25 years, the United States is facing a return to great power competition. Russia and China both have advanced their military capabilities to act as global powers. Their goals are backed by a growing arsenal of high-end warfighting capabilities, many of which are focused specifically on our vulnerabilities,” Richardson wrote.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter noted in February the “return of great power competition” as a result of China’s rise in Asia,
The Obama administration believes that the expression oversimplifies a relationship involving cooperation and competition. The phrase suggests that China and the U.S., a rising power and an established power, are destined for conflict. “Nothing is preordained about the relationship,” a senior administration official told the Navy Times.
This is not the first time the White House has tried to restrain defense officials from hyping up the military challenges posed by China’s rise in Asia.
The NSC reportedly issued a gag order in March to silence outspoken American military officials advocating challenging aggressive and provocative Chinese behavior in the South China Sea. The order was designed to give President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping “maximum political maneuvering space” at the Nuclear Security Summit.
They want to get out of office with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of cooperation with China,” retired Navy captain Jerry Hendrix told Navy Times.
“We always talk about maximizing cooperation to the extent possible … There is no question that some of China’s activities in the maritime realm are generating significant tension, but there are other areas where developments have been extremely positive,” a senior administration official revealed regarding the current directive.
The term “great power competition” apparently ignores cooperation and puts too much emphasis on the negative aspects of the relationship, such as cybersecurity issues, militarization in the South China Sea, and divergent goals for North Korea.
Some officials and analysts feel that the White House is doing the right thing to try to reframe the relationship between China and the U.S. as more than competition. “To oversimplify in either direction is not only analytically inaccurate, but consequential for the tone and substance of the relationship,” Brookings Institute security policy expert Michael O’Hanlon said.
Others feel that sugarcoating the situation risks downplaying serious problems in the relationship that still need to be addressed and prevents the administration from putting pressure on challengers. “What this means is we will spend at least 90 days with an administration that’s just treading water,” explained Bryan McGrath, a naval expert who leads The FerryBridge Group.
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