Robert Wilkie, the former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness during the Trump administration, wasn't surprised to learn about the Chinese government building high-tech fighter jets for more than a decade, reportedly through the intellectual property theft of advanced American technology.
"We are very vulnerable," Wilkie told Newsmax on Thursday afternoon, while appearing on "American Agenda" with hosts Katrina Szish and Jon Glasgow.
Wilkie recounted a visit to one of America's most prominent Air Force bases a few years ago.
Wilkie observed: "I was shocked by the number of Chinese students who were in the local McDonald's; and I looked it up and saw that ... that university nearest our Air Force base had an agreement with the Communist Chinese.
"Now, I'm sure that university is fine, but the notion that Beijing would be sending hundreds of students to the middle of rural America for the education — and not for the opportunity to spy on one of our top Air Force bases — is a little ridiculous," added Wilkie, also Trump's former secretary of Veteran Affairs (2018-21).
That same New York Post report about Chinese property theft addressed "cyber hacking" concerns, which prompted Wilkie to explain that the Biden administration has been "out to lunch" on this core security issue.
"You have four or five heads to this monster," said Wilkie. "Whereas the Russian military is generally weak, they have a very active cyber warfare community" that's tied to hackers from Iran, North Korea, and other bad actors throughout the world, he added.
"We are constantly being attacked by these forces every day. We need to up our game at the Department of Defense," said Wilkie.
From Wilkie's perspective, the first step to properly managing China — whether it involves systems hacking, duplicating fighter jets, or economic warfare — would involve President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, or Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledging the dangers of underestimating the Chinese government.
Biden, Blinken, and Milley "refuse to call China a threat," lamented Wilkie.
The greatest threat to the U.S "is Communist China. They are engaged in a consummate, concerted campaign to destroy the liberal, rules-based order," he said.
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