China, Russia will deepen cooperation against US, claim spy chiefs

Members of the US intelligence agencies on Wednesday said China will deepen its cooperation with Russia to challenge Washington. This comes despite world leaders condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A threat assessment report claimed China will continue to intimidate rivals in the South China Sea and that it will build on actions from 2022, which could include more Taiwan Strait crossings or missile overflights of Taiwan.

"Despite a global backlash over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China will maintain its diplomatic, defense, economic, and technology cooperation with Russia to continue trying to challenge the United States, even as it will limit public support," the spy chiefs said in the threat assessment released as the Senate Intelligence Committee held its annual hearing on worldwide threats to US security.

"Perhaps needless to say, the People's Republic of China, which is increasingly challenging the United States, economically, technologically, politically and militarily, around the world, remains our unparalleled priority," Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the main intelligence adviser to President Joe Biden, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

To fulfill Chinese leader Xi Jinping's vision of making China a major power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) "is increasingly convinced that it can only do so at the expense of US power and influence," Haines said.

However, she said US intelligence assesses that Beijing believes it benefits from a stable relationship, despite Xi's recent sharp criticism of the United States.

Xi blamed the west for China's economic difficulties in a speech on Monday in which he accused the United States of leading an international effort to contain China.

During questioning, Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, asked for Haines' view of Beijing's ties with Moscow. "Is it a temporary marriage of convenience or is it a long-term love affair?" he asked.

"It is continuing to deepen," Haines responded, adding that she would hesitate to characterise Beijing-Moscow ties as a love affair. "There are some limitations that we would see on where they would go in that partnership. We don't see them becoming allies the way we are with allies in Nato, but nevertheless, we do see increasing (cooperation) across every sector," she said.

The report said Russia probably does not seek conflict with the United States and Nato, but the war in Ukraine carries "great risk" of that, and that there is real potential for Russia's military failures in Ukraine to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin's domestic standing, raising the potential for escalation.

Haines described "a grinding, attritional war" in Ukraine and said US intelligence does not foresee the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains.

(With inputs from Reuters)