U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) joined several of his U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleagues in raising serious concerns about the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in China expanding its military footprint across the Indo-Pacific and globally.
“As you know, the PLA Navy now has the world’s largest naval fleet, with at least 340 warships, and is increasingly focused on projecting this force beyond the region,” wrote Sen. Young and his three Republican colleagues in a Sept. 28 letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “This could pose a direct threat to United States and allied interests in a number of ways.
“Therefore,” they wrote, “we request an update on the Department of State’s efforts to diplomatically address and counter the PLA’s growing military expansion.”
In their letter, Sen. Young and his colleagues outlined how the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) “ambitious project to develop overseas naval facilities and logistical hubs to fuel potential future operations” threatens U.S. national security interests, and called for a whole-of-government approach to address the situation.
“The United States government must now employ a whole-of-government approach to proactively engage partner countries to warn them of the risks of PLA expansion to their sovereignty and stability,” wrote Sen. Young and the lawmakers. “The United States maintains the world’s most robust and talented diplomatic presence, and we must use the Department of State’s resources to advance our interests in countering PLA expansion.”
They requested that Blinken answer numerous questions by Oct. 31, including whether a single individual at the State Department is responsible for overseeing, coordinating, and directing the agency’s counter-PLA basing efforts, and, if not, why not.
They also would like a briefing provided to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on strategies to counter the PLA’s expansion, according to their letter.