After American billionaire Ray Dalio returned from his China trip with grim warnings, policy experts are chiming in on "the scale of the threat" the Communist Chinese Party poses to national security.
Through his LinkedIn profile, Dalio published an article focusing on the "great power conflict" and what's going on with China. He claimed the piece is informed by two recent visits to Beijing where he spent a total of 13 days
"The United States and China are on the brink of war and are beyond the ability to talk," Dalio wrote. "I want to emphasize that by saying that they are on the brink, I don't mean to say that they will necessarily go over the brink. I mean to say that they are very close to crossing red lines that, if crossed, will irrevocably push them over the brink into some type of war that damages these two countries and causes damage to the world order in severe and irrevocable ways—like Russia's invasion of Ukraine did for Russia and the world, just much bigger."
Dalio founded the world's largest hedge fund firm which manages $124 billion, according to Forbes. The billionaire has been criticized for his financial exposure to the Chinese government. In 2021, Dalio equated human rights abuses in China to racism in America, and rhetorically asked whether or not he should still be investing in the United States.
American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Zack Cooper disagreed with Dalio's assessment on "Mornings with Maria" Friday, claiming the billionaire's comments don't line up with information from U.S. officials.
"I just don't think he's right. I actually think that what we've seen, as U.S. officials say recently, including the head of the Indo-Pacific command, that, yes, we have to be worried about a conflict, but that they don't see what's happening in the near term," Cooper said. "There's no reason to think we're on the brink of war right now."
However, other expert analysis has corroborated Dalio's warning of looming conflict, including Atlas Organization founder Gordon Chang who argued war could "very well" break out before 2025.
"When you have China engaging in dangerous intercepts of the U.S. and other militaries in the region, anything can happen. And we have a military that is not prepared to deal with the probable scenarios," Chang previously told host Maria Bartiromo. "General Mike Minahan on that January 27th leaked memo talked about war with China in 2025… Well, it could very well be before that."
Though Cooper further expressed doubt that there's a firm timeline for any U.S.-China conflict, he said Dalio's concerns are likely not about American defenses
"I think what Dalio's probably worried about is that there are going to be restrictions on U.S. investors that are putting money into China, especially into areas that have dual-use implications that could go into high-end computing, that could eventually help the Chinese military," Cooper said.
"And I think there is going to be real restrictions coming out of both the White House and Congress that will affect investors like Dalio.
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