Reports of China's plans to build a new training facility in Cuba are "concerning" but more attention should be given to the number of Chinese operatives who are already in the United States, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"If you put a military base down there in Cuba, we've absolutely got a problem with China not being just on our periphery with military force but also in every single layer of our society," Holt, a Newsmax contributor, said on "Wake Up America," pointing to reports that seven U.S. cities have Chinese centers that are in contact with their nation's police and intelligence agencies.
"We still don't know about these military-age men by the tens of thousands that are crossing our southern border and what their mission set is, and what they've got planned," Holt added. "There are so many things we don't know."
Holt also commented on statements made by Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who told Newsmax's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" on Monday night that he believes China is "interested in world domination" but it doesn't want to confront the United States on a military battlefield but instead is interested in projected economic power."
"Freedom always beats a totalitarian regime, and he's got one thing completely correct, no matter how much military force China projects, it's not going to be their preference to have a kinetic war with the United States," said Holt. "They're already working us in a hybrid sense with cyber, with corruption, with every other element of warfare that you could imagine."
Holt added that he is "very worried" about the nation's grid, but said that his take on Kennedy's comments is that the United States should embrace its economic power and its free society.
Then, Holt said, the country should "start to decouple this relationship [with China] intelligently and impose costs on that regime until China decides it's going to conform to world international law."
Meanwhile, there will always be a "relativism argument" over whether it is acceptable for the United States to have bases all over the world, including some bordering China and Russia, while pushing back against China opening a base just off the U.S. coast in Cuba.
"The problem is, China never had the burden of saving the free world in World War Two," said Holt. "It also doesn't have a United States Constitution, which guarantees that besides needing some soil to bury our dead, we tend not to occupy and own countries."
Holt added that he would be "all for not having a global footprint like we have, and we should have some of those bases under consideration."
For example, he said, "Look at Syria. Tell me what the reason is we're there right now besides ConocoPhillips."
He also noted that China and Russia were allies of the United States during World War II, "so a lot has certainly changed in 80 years."
Holt also on Wednesday discussed the upcoming state visit from India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will arrive in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
"I'm very excited about it because you have the world's largest democracy there and the fifth largest economy," said Holt. "Prime Minister Modi is very popular here in the United States and in his own country. He wants to enhance the relationship. They want respect on the world stage. They want entry into some of these organizations like the U.N. Security Council."
Further, India could serve as a "counterweight to Chinese belligerence on the world stage," said Holt. "We could use a friend in India, and I hope we take advantage of that."
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