China poses the major security threat to the United States and the danger is compounded by Beijing’s growing links with Russia, North Korea and Iran, according to the admiral in charge of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

“The security environment that we’re living in right now is incredibly challenging, but you should be confident that we’re going to prevail,” Adm. Sam Paparo said in a speech last week in Honolulu.

The global security environment has grown increasingly disordered and chaotic. Wars are raging in Europe and the Middle East and the danger of future conflict with China is growing, he said in an address to a conference on information operations.

Israel’s war against Hamas following the Oct. 7 terror attack in Gaza has evolved into “multi -party proxy war” with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, he said. North Korea continues large-scale ballistic missile testing and is enhancing its nuclear arms development , even as it forces close military, economic and diplomatic links with Russia.

In China, the People’s Liberation Army is engaged in the world’s largest military expansion since World War II, Adm. Paparo said.

“The PRC ’s coercive campaign of pressure against Taiwan continues, and the PRC ’s revanchist, revisionist and expansionist claims in the South China Sea could very well be the next flashpoint,” he said, using the acronym for People’s Republic of China.

Adm. Paparo said none of the threats are contained to “a stovepipe” – disconnected from other geopolitical crises.

“They’re increasingly linked, and our would-be adversaries in cases have formed transactional and symbiotic, ’no-limits’ relationships,” he said.

Adm. Paparo singled out North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for supplying ballistic missiles, artillery and now troops in the Ukraine war. Iran also is providing weaponized drones and recently delivered several hundred close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for the conflict in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently announced closer ties after an October meeting. After the meeting, Mr. Putin said the two nations would seek to overhaul the U.S.-led international order.

Iranian ties with China also helped Tehran undercut U.S. sanctions against Iran and helped boost Iranian influence throughout the Middle East, Adm. Paparo said.

“So, you see the PRC, Russia, Iran and North Korea are collaborating and cooperating together to oppose the United States, our allies and our partners, like-minded democracies, every single day,” he said.

Command structure

The admiral noted that the world is not divided in ways that conform to the American military’s current unified command plan – the network of global combatant commands covering regions such as Africa, the Middle East or Latin America.

“The world is increasingly connected. Our economies are increasingly connected, and conflict is increasingly connected,” the four-star admiral said.

In addition to the new axis of adversaries, advanced technology is adding a new layer of threats, Adm. Paparo said, including major shifts in the use of autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, hypersonic missiles, nanotechnology, directed energy, large data computation and, in the future, quantum technology.

All are combining with and contributing to global conflict and disorder.

“Threats are increasingly connected. The technology is demonstrating greater speed and greater effects,” Adm. Paparo said. “Given the security mission, the security environment, the PRC’s increasingly aggressive behavior, more than any other time in recent history our ability to deter the PRC may have never been more urgent, nor more critical.”

Deterrence of a U.S. war with China contains three elements, the admiral said.

First is having powerful military capabilities and second is the willingness to use those capabilities.

“That last thing is your would-be adversary’s awareness of it. Without that, all the capability and all the will in the world is the tree that falls in the forest. Does it make a sound? Who knows, if there’s no one there to hear it?” Adm. Paparo said.

To support the deterrence mission, the Indo-Pacific Command is boosting its information capabilities. The goal is to let China and other adversaries know that the risk of military defeat, economic loss, diplomatic isolation or a combination of those factors will outweigh any expected gains.

“Only by being ready can we deter, and by that I mean there’s no bluffing this,” he said.

Robust information operations must be backed by credible combat power and a clear realization among potential enemies that U.S. and allied forces are ready to fight and win, he said.

To support that, the command’s “No. 1 line of effort” is launching campaigns of integrated and impactful information operations, he said.

Propaganda disadvantage

The United States and its allies, however, are at a disadvantage in the information wars:  Chinese and other authoritarian regimes that tightly control all news and propaganda “in ways that we cannot, and we will not,” he said.

The U.S. government is constrained to using truth and a free press for its information operations, he said.

“That is not the case for our would-be adversaries, who are absolutely free to lie and have a constrained press,” he said.

Authoritarian regimes “lie at will” and exploit the open information environment in doing so, he noted.

For the West, the long-range advantages of living in a world with highly accountable governments and a free press ultimately will provide greater advantages.

To overcome the challenge posed by adversaries’ unconstrained use of propaganda, U.S. government information operations must be clear in telling “our strategic story,” Adm. Paparo said.

“Our story — it’s not a fake, it’s not a narrative, it’s not an info op. It’s real. It is underpinned by combat, credible operations. It’s underpinned by values. It’s underpinned by the values that bind us all,” he said.

To better conduct information operations, the Pacific Fleet set up the Information Warfare Command Pacific in 2022. The unit centralized several disparate information operations units spread throughout the military. A two-star general, Air Force Maj. Gen. Neil Richardson, was named the command’s senior leader for information operations.

The command also is working closely with allies and partner governments and militaries to better synchronize information operations, including programs currently underway with Japan, Australia, Philippines, Singapore and South Korea.

“Our network of alliances and partnerships is a strategic and asymmetric advantage,” Adm. Paparo said.

The key to success is belief in America’s founding principles, including accountable government, freedom of speech and a free press.

“Have faith that we’re going to prevail. I do,” the admiral said.