A top American intelligence official has acknowledged that China has great concern about the Asian pivot strategy of the US.
This concern is now reflected in the aggressive behaviour of China in the region, he told lawmakers.
"They have great concerns about our pivot, which in their mind represents an attempt to contain them. So they've been quite aggressive about asserting what they believe is their manifest destiny, if you will, in that part of the world," Director National Intelligence, James Clapper told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.
China, he said, sees itself as a global player. "They feel they have historical, as unreasonable as they may seem to us, but in their mind, historical claims towards the nine-dash line in the South China Sea and over these islands," Clapper said when asked about the recent aggressive behaviour of China in East and South China Sea.
"So it does create potential flash points here over -- disputes the islands and over energy and access to drill -- drilling and this sort of thing, particularly in the South China Sea.
"And having travelled to that region recently, I can attest that it is a great concern expressed privately more so than publicly on the part of the countries you mentioned," Clapper said.
Testifying before the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Clapper said the US continues to look with great concern on their cyber activities, their counter space posture, and on their recent moves in East China Sea.
"Beijing's so-called Air Defense Identification Zone, which would require US forces to identify themselves and their mission to Chinese forces as they fly near or over certain tiny islands is troubling power and a land grab," he said.
"It's also an affront to international law. These moves increase the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations between Washington and China, making the role of intelligence that much more important," he said.
Clapper also expressed concern over the Chinese cyber and space activities.
"I'm very concerned that China has been conducting tests, and they conducted a destructive, anti-satellite test against its own satellite," he said.
"And the debris field, as a result of this, was troubling to our satellites and our space missions.
But these activities reveal that countries are working on the ability to destroy our satellites, on which so much of our daily lives and our military intelligence capabilities depend, including citizens, GPS systems, things that -- that space does every day that the public really don't understand how important space is," Clapper said.
