US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta referred to India and China as “threats” late Thursday, but his spokesman quickly sought to clarify his remarks. The Pentagon chief, speaking to workers at a Connecticut shipyard that builds attack submarines, described an array of threats facing the United States, including Iran, North Korea and cyber attacks. He then strayed from standard US policy rhetoric by adding India and China to the list of security dangers, saying the United States would need to make clear to these “rising powers” that it would not be pulling out of the Pacific region.
“We face the threats from rising powers, China, India, others that we have to always be aware of, and try to make sure that we always have sufficient force protection out there in the Pacific to make sure they know we’re never going anywhere,” he said. The US government never openly portrays China as a security threat, even though it frequently voices concern about Beijing’s military buildup and assertive stance in the South China Sea.
