China misused strategic misinformation for long time: US top official

A senior White House official asserted that the US has always fallen prey to "strategic misinformation". He dubbed China is not a "threat" to them as the Communist giant is seen busy in "bullying activities".

"I think China has used strategic misinformation for a long time," said Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President at the White House.

 "I found this very early in my career," said Gorka, who is a national security professional specialising in irregular warfare, including counter insurgency and counterterrorism during an interaction at the Heritage Foundation, a top American think-tank.

Gorka said that this "misinformation campaign" has reached the top American leadership.

"It has reached the highest levels of US government, successive administrations have said various things, China is not a threat, and then when they became more and more of a threat, when they started bullying activities, military activities that were troubling then the narrative changed a little bit to do we want a strong China?" he told the audience.

"Trying to do everything in way to play down the fact that they pose a threat to the United States Security; and so it's one of the key things that we have to counter-act," he said, adding that for a number of years through his writing and reporting he is trying to show the threat from China.

"It is a real threat and we need to understand it but it's been counteracted by a narrative that says if we trade with China that this will lead to a reform of China and that hasn't worked," he said.

"They are exporting a version of an anti-democratic system; and so that's why I think it's really important that we focus more on understanding the nature of that threat," Gorka said.

His comments came days after US President Donald Trump took a U-turn and supported the One-China policy.

China is involved in a widening dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over islands in the South China Sea Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the islands.