As an active-duty Pacific Command war planner in the mid-1990s, then-Army Lt. Col. Mark Esper watched the rise of China. Now, as secretary of defense, he has a chance to do something about it.
“China’s been on this path for some time now,” Esper said at an Aspen Security Forum virtual discussion Wednesday. “It’s time that we woke up and addressed it, that we competed much more vigorously with China.”
Esper outlined an across-the-board reorientation of the Department of Defense from education to shifting priorities at global combatant commands, all with the goal to counter China’s influence and align efforts with the National Defense Strategy great power competition.
The effort has included things such as ordering 50% of the National Defense University curriculum to focus on China to help senior-level officers understand the rival’s political, military, and economic goals and values and the Chinese Communist Party’s organization.
Esper is also ramping up Mandarin language training for Defense Department personnel.
“I’ve made China the pacing threat for our armed services,” he said. “We’re now understanding better Chinese order of battle.”
Esper, who has said he has regular contact with his People’s Liberation Army counterpart, recently announced plans to visit China before the end of the year. The goal stresses engagement over miscalculation.
“I don’t see China right now as an inevitable threat, that we are going to have a fight with them,” he said. “But we do have to compete, and we have to be much more vigorous in all domains.”
Esper said he desired for China to share U.S. values, if not democracy, and respect for international rule of law.
“At least respect international rules and norms, and don’t try to alter them,” he said, pointing to examples of bullying in the South China Sea.
Esper has repeatedly stressed that China is using the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase its aggressive behavior on the seas in the face of international law.
In June and July, the Navy conducted multiple dual-carrier operations in the South China Sea and various freedom of navigation transits in waters claimed by China. China recently sunk a Vietnamese fishing vessel and laid claim to island chains and submerged reefs, asserting that such claims give it full territorial control of the South China Sea.
New Pacific partners
China’s claims conflict with those of smaller Pacific nations such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Esper said that in the past week, he has spoken with his counterparts in Indonesia, Brunei, and Australia and that strengthening partnerships provide the United States with an “asymmetric advantage” over China.
“So many of the relationships, unlike Europe, in Asia, are bilateral,” he said of relations with countries such as South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, which recently declared it would not participate in future U.S. joint exercises in the South China Sea.
The Philippines navy, however, will participate in the multilateral RIMPAC exercises in Hawaii this month.
“We need to multilaterilize those. Maybe not officially, right? But in terms of knitting things up so that we talk more as a group,” Esper said. “That’s the best way to push back against China and its bad behavior in the Pacific.”
Esper said the National Defense Strategy also boosts international military education and training funding by 50% over the next five years. He cited the program as an avenue for strengthening relationships with regional militaries, the officers of which would attend U.S. military schools.
“You can’t beat the return on investment,” he said, adding that arms sales also build relationships and improve interoperability.
Esper characterized the competition as global, not only orienting efforts to the Indo-Pacom theater and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command but leveraging the efforts of other combatant commands to counter Chinese influence.
“We see them in all parts of the world,” Esper said, noting China’s influence on the African continent.
“We need to continue to outreach to them, but we also need to recognize that we’re in a new era,” he said. “We’ve got to continue to strengthen our allies and grow new partners.”
