China is a BIGGER threat than Russia as country’s military on track to become ‘world’s most powerful,’ Mitt Romney says

CHINA is on track to have the “world’s most powerful military” and is a bigger threat to the US than Russia, Mitt Romney has warned.

The Utah Senator believes the country could present the “greatest” challenge to US foreign policy as Beijing builds its economy.

ReutersChina is on track to have the ‘world’s most powerful military’, it’s claimed[/caption]

CNNMitt Romney said the ‘real challenge’ is the’ emergence of China’[/caption]

Romney says he thinks Joe Biden is “increasingly aware” of the issues China, which is lead by President Xi Jinping, could pose in the future if its development continues at pace.

Speaking on CNN‘s State of Reunion, he said: “The real challenge is the emergence of China, which is on track to become the most powerful economy in the world and the most powerful military in the world.

“And that represents a greater challenge over the coming couple of decades.

“I think the president is increasingly aware of that challenge, as is his secretary of state, (Antony) Blinken, and I think they’re looking to try to pull together our alliances to wake up to that reality and take action to dissuade China from the path of confrontation and military aggressiveness.”

Romney’s remarks followed similar comments he made in an opinion piece for the Washington Post, where he said China is becoming the biggest “existential threat” to the US.

“China is on track to surpass us economically, militarily and geopolitically,” he wrote.

Getty Images – GettyRomney believes China, lead by President Xi Jinping, left, could surpass the US ‘economically, militarily and geopolitically’[/caption]

APThe Senator says he believes Joe Biden ‘is aware’ of the significant challenge China could pose[/caption]

“These measures are not independent: a dominant economy provides the wherewithal to mount a dominant military.

“Combined, these will win for China the hearts and minds of many nations attuned to their own survival and prosperity.”

During his interview with CNN, Romney also called for world leader’s to stand up to China’s actions.

It comes after China faces global condemnation over allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing

Accounts from inside China’s detention camps where millions of Uighur Mulims are brainwashed and tortured emerged, painting the Xinjiang region as a “dystopian hellscape”.

Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities face systematic and state-organised “mass internment and torture amounting to crimes against humanity”, International Amnesty has said in a 160-page report.

The minority groups had been forced to abandon their religious traditions, language and culture and subjected to mass surveillance, the charity revealed.

Meanwhile, explosive new claims have emerged that China deleted information about the origins of the virus that could have provided vital clues as question marks hang over the country’s transparency over Covid.

Romney said on Sunday: “China is doing a lot of very bad things.

“And the entire world needs to come to recognize what they’re doing and say, ‘Look, that is not going to stand and we will not allow you to play the kind of dominant role you want to have on the world’s stage while you’re carrying out these atrocities.”