The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a leading threat to the United States and will continue its attempts to coerce Taiwan into unification with the mainland, according to leaders of the American intelligence community. “The [People’s Republic of China] is coming ever closer to being a peer competitor in areas of relevance to national security,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines during a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on March 8. “It is pushing to revise global norms and institutions to its advantage. And it is challenging the United States in multiple arenas, but particularly economically, militarily, and technologically.” The hearing follows the publication Monday of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s annual threat assessment, which found that China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia would be the leading threats to the United States in the coming year. The report said that the CCP was using every …