China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier Shandong sails into Hong Kong waters as it arrives in Hong Kong on July 3, 2025. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images
Communist China is engaged in a decades-long attempt to expand its terrestrial and maritime claims without triggering an overt war, Congress has heard.
Speaking during an Oct. 7 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said that multiple successive U.S. administrations had failed to counter China’s program of expansion because the regime’s actions fell below the threshold of international military conflict.
