Intel: China may pose greater challenge to US hegemony in Mideast than Russia

The top US military commander for operations in the Middle East said that China’s economic influence in the Middle East may one day pose a greater challenge to US strategic interests than Russia in the region, even as the Kremlin seeks a wider military presence in Syria and Libya.

“I do worry about China quite a bit because it is one of my core taskings,” head of US Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie said during a think tank event in Washington on Wednesday.

“Russia doesn’t have the economic resources to come into the region in the way that China does,” McKenzie said, calling the Kremlin’s interventions in Syria and Libya “opportunist.”

“I am not one of those people who thinks the Russians are master chess players and see four, five, six moves ahead,” McKenzie said.