Top CIA Official: China Waging a ‘Cold War’ Against U.S.

China is waging a “cold war” against the U.S. and trying to take over as the world’s leading superpower, a top CIA official said. Michael Collins, the deputy assistant director of the CIA's East Asia Mission Center, said the threat posed by Beijing is the biggest global issue facing Washington right now. “It sets up a competition with us and what we stand behind far more significantly by any extreme than what the Russians could put forward,” Collins said at the Aspen Security Forum. He said Beijing is employing tactics that fit the definition of a cold war: “A country that exploits all avenues of power licit and illicit, public and private, economic and military, to undermine the standing of your rival relative to your own standing without resorting to conflict.” The ultimate goal of Beijing, he said, is to have “every country around the world” side with China over the U.S. Several top U.S. officials issued similar warnings about China earlier this week, with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats both naming Beijing as the most significant threat to the U.S.