US spy chiefs say aid to Ukraine will discourage Chinese aggression

Washington — Leaders of US intelligence agencies pressed legislators on Tuesday to approve additional military assistance for Ukraine, saying it would not only boost Kyiv as it fights Russia but discourage Chinese aggression.

“That has consequences for American interests that go ... directly to our interests in the Indo-Pacific,” CIA director William Burns told the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee’s annual hearing on Worldwide Threats to US security.

“That kind of an outcome will stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership, and they’re going to undermine the faith that our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific have in our reliability,” Burns said.

He said continuing support for Ukraine would send a message to China about aggression towards Taiwan or in the South China Sea. “It is our assessment that (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping was sobered, you know, by what happened. ... He didn’t expect that Ukraine would resist with the courage and tenacity the Ukrainians demonstrated,” Burns said.

Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, an ally of former president Donald Trump, has so far refused to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60bn more for Ukraine more than two years after Russian launched a full-scale invasion.

The measure has passed the Democratic-run Senate, and both Republicans and Democrats in the House say it would pass if the chamber’s Republican leaders allowed a vote. Representative Mike Turner, chair of the House intelligence committee, noted that some members of Congress support aid to Ukraine but “I believe, mistakenly,” contend that Kyiv can afford a delay.

Burns agreed, saying: “I can already see the Ukrainian military rationing ammunition, you can already see them becoming more vulnerable to Russian attacks from the air, from drones, from missiles, from aircraft,” he told the committee. 

On Monday, intelligence agencies the CIA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency tabled their 2024 Annual Threat Assessment report in Congress.

It says the US faces an “increasingly fragile world order”, strained by great power competition, transnational challenges and regional conflicts.

“An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable nonstate actors are challenging long-standing rules of the international system, as well as US primacy within it,” the agencies said.

The report largely focused on threats from China and Russia, the greatest rivals to the US, as well as noting the risks of broader conflict related to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza since the October 7 attacks.

Dark tech

China is providing economic and security assistance to Russia as it wages war in Ukraine, by supporting Russia’s industrial base, the report said. It also warned that China could use technology to try to influence this year’s US elections.

"(China) may attempt to influence the US elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify US societal divisions,” the report said.

In her testimony to the Senate intelligence committee, director of national intelligence Avril Haines had also urged legislators to approve more military assistance for Ukraine. It was “hard to imagine how Ukraine” could hold territory it has recaptured from Russia without more assistance from Washington, she said.

The threats report noted that trade between China and Russia has been increasing since the start of the Ukraine war, and that Chinese exports of goods with potential military use rose more than threefold since 2022.

Haines noted concerns that the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas could spread global insecurity. “The crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential of broader and even global implications,” Haines said.

She noted attacks by Houthi militias on shipping and said the militant groups Al-Qaeda and ISIS “inspired by Hamas” have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and US interests.

After a protester interrupted the hearing on Monday with shouts about the need to protect civilians in Gaza, Burns was asked about children in the Palestinian enclave.

“The reality is that there are children who are starving. They’re malnourished as a result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can't get to them. It's very difficult to distribute humanitarian assistance effectively unless you have a ceasefire,” he said.

Emotions rose in the hearing as some senators discussed immigration across the US border with Mexico, which Trump has made a focus of his campaign to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden in the November election.

FBI director Christopher Wray expressed concern about the “terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border,” noting rising threats from Americans inspired by Islamist groups and other foreign militants since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

“The threat has gone to a whole new level,” Wray said.

Reuters