The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in a whole-of-society effort to undermine the rules-based international order and to promote its own brand of authoritarianism, according to U.S. military and political leaders. “The People’s Republic of China is the most consequential strategic competitor that the United States has faced,” said Admiral John Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. “They are executing a dedicated campaign that utilizes all forms of national power in an attempt to uproot the rules-based international order to the benefit of themselves and at the expense of all others.” Aquilino delivered the testimony to the House Armed Services Committee during a March 9 hearing on national security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. Committee Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.) affirmed Aquilino’s sentiments and said that the CCP was the greatest threat to the United States’ continued global leadership. He said that American leadership was working to secure global peace, but …