Webinar | A Net Assessment: The U.S. Navy vs. the PLA Navy in World War Xi

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ludicrously danced to the Chinese Communist Party’s tune in Beijing this week, professing to have made progress reducing bilateral tensions and improving military-to-military relations. Even more preposterously, he touted as an accomplishment arranging for a future phone call between the CCP’s dictator, Xi Jinping, and the person formally known as President Joe Biden.

A sanity check is urgently needed. The Chinese Communists are far advanced in their preparations for war with the United States and probably one or more of its allies and partners in East Asia. This reality will not be altered, let alone mitigated, by yet another senior American official obsequiously kowtowing in China’s capital.

And a “phoner” that a ruthless thug like Xi might have with a man deemed by his own party to be unfit to lead this country five months from now can only exacerbate our mortal enemy’s conviction that we cannot, or at least will not, stand in the way of the PRC’s determined bid for global hegemony. That is especially true given that the latter individual is rightly characterized as a “controlled asset” of the Chinese Communist Party.

Moreover, the two nations’ military-to-military relations will be defined by the degree to which their respective capabilities contribute to deterring the CCP’s increasing belligerence or to a shooting war. That is especially true for those capabilities most likely to be decisively needed in a theater characterized by vast oceans.

This week’s CPDC webinar provides a net assessment of the state of the U.S. and Chinese navies, their respective quantities and quality of warships and naval weapons, the readiness and morale of the personnel manning them, and the industrial capabilities necessary to support the fleet, especially in time of war. We also consider what steps the United States can and must take to enhance its capabilities in all these areas.

Moderator:

- Frank Gaffney, Founder and Executive Chairman, Center for Security Policy; Vice Chairman, Committee on the Present Danger: China, co-author, “The Indictment: Prosecuting the Chinese Communist Party and Friends for Crimes Against America, China, and the World”

Panelists:

- Captain James Fanell, U.S. Navy (Ret.), columnist American Greatness; co-author: “Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure”
• Topic: “The Threat Posed by the PLA Navy: Is America’s Navy Up to the Job of Defeating It?”

- Colonel Grant Newsham, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), Former Military Attaché in Embassy Tokyo; former Foreign Service Officer; longtime business executive in the Western Pacific; Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy; Author, “When China Attacks: A Warning to America”
• Topic: The Marines: Are We Condemned to a Pacific Campaign 2.0 and, If So, Will We Prevail Again?

- Captain Jay Bolton, U.S. Merchant Marine (Ret.), Maritime Consultant, Tanker & Tall Ships’ Master, Founder of the United States Maritime Foundation
• Topic: “Manning the Fleet and Its Supporting Maritime Assets”

- Honorable Seth Cropsey, Former Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy, author, “May Day: The Decline of American Naval Supremacy” and “Seablindness: How Political Neglect Is Choking American Seapower and What to Do about It”
• Topic: “What Our Naval Services Must Do to Recover Their Fighting Trim in the Face of World War Xi”