



A visitor takes photos of a screen monitoring the internet during an exhibition on cyber security in Shanghai in September 2017. Photo: VCG

China's Foreign Ministry scoffed at the latest US claim that China and Russia are the biggest security threats to the US, saying it has no idea why the world's most powerful country would have such a strong sense of insecurity."The US is the world's top power with unparalleled military might. If the US feels it is threatened, what would other countries do? Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a daily briefing on Wednesday."I don't know why the US has such a strong sense of insecurity," Geng said.Geng's remarks come after the leader of the US intelligence community told US senators on Tuesday that Russia and China pose the biggest espionage and cyber threats to the US."China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea increasingly use cyber operations to threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways," said Dan Coats, director of US National Intelligence, Reuters reported.Coats also said that China and Russia are more aligned than they have been in decades."Moscow's relationship with Beijing is closer than it's been in many decades," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual hearing on worldwide threats.Hyping China and Russia as US threats has been the US mainstream's usual practice, Wu Xinbo, director of Fudan University's Center for American Studies, told the Global Times.Both China and Russia are seeking stable relations with the US but the US containment has brought the two countries closer, said Wu, noting that the US should deeply reflect on its strategic mistakes.Naming China the top or biggest threat is not new from US politicians or officials. The latest similar accusation comes from US Attorney General nominee William Barr, who told the US Senate Judiciary Committee on January 15 that China is the biggest threat to the US, Washington Times reported.Li Haidong, a professor at the Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University, said that in the foreseeable future, the US will focus on all-round competition with China using security, national defense and intelligence agencies.There's nothing new in US concerns about losing its hegemony, especially in the military sector, Wu said.If the US wants to maintain its military presence in every corner of the world, it will surely target China as a top security threat, Wu pointed out.Such a mindset is unrealistic as China will strive for "absolute advantage" in military capability in the Western Pacific region, as it has to defend its core interests on matters related to the island of Taiwan and the South China Sea, Wu said.The US will also make countries choose between China and itself, which shows the country's deep-rooted Cold War mentality, said Li.Though US President Donald Trump may have limited interest in alliances with other countries, the Trump administration's foreign policy is gradually returning to what US mainstream policy elites and neo-conservatives are advocating, Li added.