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\u201cChina has taken advantage of our openness,\u201d Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee. \u201cOur hope in the past has been that if we bring China into organizations like the World Trade Organization and include China in our military exercises and the like, and that somehow China will become like us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reality is that\u2019s simply not true. China has taken advantage of our openness … to continue the path that they\u2019ve always been on and we\u2019re seeing that play out now in 2018. Certainly over the next 20 years or so that will be a concern,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His comments of Xi\u2019s political future were notably tougher than the White House, which said this week that the removal of term presidential limits is China\u2019s business. Trump has even quipped, \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll give that a shot someday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris said China seeks regional hegemony and wants to push America out. He said China\u2019s development of hypersonic glide weapons and stealth fighter jets pose a significant threat to the U.S. He also expressed concern about China\u2019s militarization of islands it has built in the disputed South China Sea, and its acquisition of icebreaker ships although it has no Arctic border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pacific commander did credit China, which is North Korea\u2019s main trading partner, for its implementation of U.N. sanctions against the pariah nation. He said the pressure campaign was a \u201cbig part\u201d in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seeking a summit with Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, Harris said if the U.S. was to get bogged down in a conflict with North Korea, China could take strategic advantage of the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s removal of presidential term limits could see leader Xi Jinping stay in power for decades, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Thursday. Adm. Harry Harris said he viewed the move as a harbinger of the authoritarian nation\u2019s direction and the strategic threat it poses to America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":86,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,86],"tags":[],"coauthors":[307],"class_list":["post-40537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GIG62KCDOREBVGY4DUR4JBXSKE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2018\/03\/15\/xi-could-rule-china-for-decades-says-us-pacific-commander\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n