Gordon Chang says US must push back on China: ‘What more evidence do we need?’

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US working to declassify unconfirmed intelligence China may have offered bounty on troops in Afghanistan

Gordon Chang reacts to the reported intelligence, discusses U.S.-China relations on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

Gordon Chang says the U.S. "absolutely" should have a stronger policy to push back on China amid unconfirmed intelligence the country put a bounty on American troops in Afghanistan.

"I don’t think we should be maintaining relations with any regime that wants to kill Americans," Chang told Molly Line on "America’s Newsroom" Friday. "China has been harming Americans for a long time, and we have not responded."

"We need to establish deterrence," he added. "And we have failed to do that, from administration to administration."

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Chang responded to recent unconfirmed intelligence, first reported by Axios, alleging that Beijing offered to pay for fighters to target and kill Americans serving in Afghanistan. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry called the uncorroborated intelligence "a smear and slander against China" during a news briefing Thursday.

Chang argued China’s "hostility" toward the U.S. is clear, whether the report is true or not.

"China’s been selling weapons to militants in Afghanistan, and, obviously, those weapons are going to be used against Americans," Chang said. "This also mirrors something that happened in Iraq, where China was selling weapons through Iran to militants in Iraq obviously used to kill Americans."

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"We know the hostility of the Chinese political system to the US," he added. "So, whether this report about the bounties is correct or not, we know that China is indeed hostile to the United States."

Chang said the report, if true, would be an extension of "increased comments from China" against Americans. "Chinese officials talking about killing Americans, doing that in public, that’s new in China," he said.

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If untrue, the report could have come from a third party trying to interfere in U.S.-China relations, Chang said.

"It could be elements in Afghanistan that are opposed to China, because there are so many different tribes and so many different factions," Chang said. "And that, of course, is something we’ll eventually get to the bottom of."

The allegations against China mirror similar reports last year that Russia offered to pay bounties on American troops to Taliban-linked fighters. "That’s really important, because we know that, in general, China and Russia have been coordinating their policies," Chang said.

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Chang noted other instances of Chinese aggression toward the U.S., including reported attempts to bring down a U.S. C-130 military plane and to cause brain injuries to American diplomats at the U.S. Consulate General facility in Guangzhou, China.

"China tried to bring down a U.S. C-130 in early 2018. If you try to bring down a plane, you’re trying to kill the crew," Chang said. "And we know that it caused brain injuries to American diplomats at the Guangzhou consulate about the same time."

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"And of course they took steps to deliberately release the coronavirus from their own country," Chang added. "So that’s 346,000 Americans who have been killed by this disease. I mean, what more evidence do we need?"

Fox News’ Gillian Turner, Michael Ruiz and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.