Former Pentagon official ranks China as ‘SERIOUS THREAT’ to US

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:02]We're back with some news you should know. First with a Fox Business alert.

[00:00:06]US forces launching self-defense operations against Iran in the last hour. The strikes coming at the order of the commander and chief in response to Iran's downing of an Apache helicopter.

[00:00:18]This follows a historic rescue mission in which a US Navy unmanned surface vessel recovered near the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the president told reporters a deal to end the conflict with Iran could be reached within days.

[00:00:33]>> We're in the final throws of what will be a very, very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons, etc. It's and the straight will open up right away. It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days.

[00:00:50]And finally, the commander-in-chief receiving a mixed reception from the crowd during game three of the NBA finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. Later joking with reporters it was all in good fun.

[00:01:03]>> Well, it's a little leftwing. Yeah, I think so. It tends to be a little bit leftwing, but it was it's great entertainment. Great.

[00:01:11]Moving on, the Pentagon is expanding its list of Chinese firms it says are tied to Beijing's military, adding heavyweights like Alibaba, BYU, and BYD.

[00:01:22]The designations themselves impose no sanctions, but block all potential defense department contracts and ban third-party purchases from the firms beginning in June 2027. Joining us now is the Heritage Foundation Center for National Security Senior Research Fellow, former Pentagon official, and former Navy captain, Brent Sadler.

[00:01:42]Brent, great to see you tonight. Thanks for being with us. Um, what do you what do you make of these new companies being added to this list? They're they're familiar names. You know, if you're in the markets and you're following stocks, these are these are big names. BYD, a big name in electric vehicles. How big a deal is this?

[00:02:00]>> Well, I think it's long overdue. I mean, there is no such thing as a private firm or enterprise in communist China. And I think it's taken us far too long to realize the national security dangers from what would seemingly be a benign electric car or a crane for a port. And so I think this is long overdue. I hope it continues. uh and I think it's just the beginning of of designating many of these companies as the threat that they are as long as they are at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. You know, there's a huge debate we hear all the time people talking about how far behind China is on AI with respect to the US.

[00:02:41]What's your view on that? Are they within inches of where we are right now?

[00:02:46]Are they way behind us? How big of a threat do you rate that?

[00:02:51]I I think it's a very si serious threat.

[00:02:53]I mean, when you look in the national security and defense industries, I mean, the Chinese were not that far behind us in hypersonic weapons 15 years ago, and now they're very far ahead of us, and we're only now just starting to take that threat seriously and catch up. Uh, and so it it they could very quickly jump ahead of us or take a path that we're not anticipating that takes the technology in a new direction. This is one of the fears of AI under the Chinese Communist Party as well as other technologies.

[00:03:22]>> You know, there's kind of this debate about what to do with AI. Do we centralize it at the national level?

[00:03:28]Should all the regulation? Should all the policy be at the national level?

[00:03:32]Should the United States government take a an equity interest in a sense own stock in these AI companies? That's one view. Another view says that's the China approach to all this. Don't do that.

[00:03:44]That's central planning. Let capitalism, let free markets be the engine that keeps us ahead of China from a defense perspective that because that's a perspective you have. How do you view that debate?

[00:03:56]>> Uh well, trying to centralize anything and certainly even in the military can be a vulnerability. If you have everything centralized under one roof or one set of regulations or one framework, it's very easy then to attack it. And again, AI is very nimble and very dynamic by its nature. But if you try to constrain the algorithms into one framework, you're going to be also making yourself very vulnerable. So we have to be very cautious. I would say what's most important is that uh policy makers need to get much more informed and much more deeply understanding of the science and the mathematics that are behind the algorithms and these AI tools that are being developed and then to fully embrace it and use it to its advantage. And that is only going to come about when you actually have smart people uh interacting with these smart machines.

[00:04:44]>> Brent, while I got you, I want to talk about the air strikes targeting Iran that are ongoing right now in response to yesterday's downing of an Apache helicopter. How significant are the are these We're calling them defensive attacks, but how significant are they?

[00:04:59]Do they derail the negotiating process?

[00:05:02]No, it won't derail a negotiating process that's already been held captive for two months now by the IRGC. You know, in the art of the deal of this, you need to understand the environment, then also use the leverage. And I think right now, President Trump is taking, you know, an assessment of the environment. It's the IRGC is the impediment. And then using leverage now, these attacks to take away Iran's leverage over the Straits or Hammuz.

[00:05:27]Also, I think importantly, we'll see if the strikes go beyond the straits or moves to go after the IRGC and to try to minimize or or to put them to the side so that we can actually get to, you know, the necessary concessions from Thran to seal the deal.

[00:05:42]>> It remains a very hot ceasefire. Brent Sadler, thanks for being with us tonight. It's very good to see you.