Washington: China will continue to pursue an active foreign policy, especially within the Asia-Pacific region, to fulfil its ambitious One Belt One Road initiative, a top US intelligence official has said.
"China views a strong military is a critical element in advancing it's interests. It will also pursue efforts aimed at fulfilling its ambitious One Belt One Road initiative to expand their strategic influence and economic role across Asia through infrastructure projects," Daniel Coats, director of National Intelligence told members of the Senate Select Committee during a Congressional hearing on Thursday.
China will continue, he said, to pursue an active foreign policy. "Especially within the Asia-Pacific region, highlighted by a firm stance on competing territorial claims in the East China Sea and South China Sea, relations with Taiwan and its pursuit of economic engagement across East Asia," he said.
Coats said regional tension will persist as China competes construction at its expanded outposts in the SCS (South China Sea), despite an overwhelmingly strong ruling against it by a UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration tribunal in July 2016.
China will seek to build on its hosting of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou in September 2016, its "One-Belt, One-Road" initiative, and progress on launching the Asia infrastructure investment Bank to increase its global presence on international economic issues, he told the lawmakers.
China will increasingly be a factor in global responses to emerging problems, as illustrated by China's participation in UN peacekeeping operations, its expanding counter-terrorism cooperation, and infrastructure construction in Africa and Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Coats said.
Domestically, he noted, Chinese leaders will move cautiously on their ambitious reform agenda, maintain their anti-corruption campaign, and try to manage China's slowing economy.
China's economic growth continues to be driven by unsustainable debt accumulation, but Beijing has made limited progress on reforms needed to boost economic efficiencies, he said.
