Deputy assistant director of the CIA’s East Asia Mission Centre Michael Collins told the Aspen Security Forum that China’s actions to build islands in the South China Sea were akin to “the Crimea of the East”, referring to the Kremlin’s annexation of the Ukrainian region.
He said: “China sets up a competition with us and what we stand behind far more significantly by any extreme than what the Russians could put forward
“I would argue that what they’re waging against us is fundamentally a cold war.”
He claims it is not like the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, but a cold war by definition.
He added: “A country that exploits all avenues of power licit and illicit, public and private, economic and military, to undermine the standing of your rival relative to your own standing without resorting to conflict.”
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The CIA official also said the ultimate goal of Beijing was to have “every country in the world” sided with China over US interests.
Mr Collins’ claims come days after FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of China’s “broadest” immediate threat to the US.
Regarding Beijing’s espionage efforts uncovered by his agency, Mr Wray said: “The volume of it, the pervasiveness of it, the significance of it is something that I think this country cannot underestimate.
“And I say that because for them it is a whole of state effort.
“It is economic espionage as well as traditional espionage; it is nontraditional collectors as well as traditional intelligence operatives; it’s human sources as well as cyber means.”
China’s military reforms were revealed in leaked internal documents this month.
The leak suggest Beijing intends to expand its military might offshore so the country can “manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war” and overtake the United States in military strength.
In May, the United States raised concerns with China about its latest militarisation of the South China Sea and claimed there will be short-term and long-term consequences.
In the disputed South China Sea, the communist state has built up its presence on the islands more than any other country in the area.
They have installed air bases, radar systems and defence capabilities.
China has also been testing radar cross-sections (RCS) for new fighter jets.
An RCS index can measure how detectable an object is by radar and can be used in ballistic missiles.