HMM: Navy, Marine Corps leaders warn that China is ‘weaponizing capital.’

“When it comes to China, the bottom line there is the checkbook,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer told lawmakers during a House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing.

“Not only in the dollars and cents that they are writing to support their military expansion and their technological work, but what they’re doing around the globe … weaponizing capital.”

Spencer referred to Beijing’s current funding of a Sri Lankan port project, a move not done as aid but rather in order to secure it for themselves.

China has said the project is part of its $1.4 trillion “Belt and Road Initiative,” which is meant to bolster trade routes by extending roads outside the country and building up ports.

“Their open checkbook keeps me up at night,” Spencer said.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, who also spoke at the hearing, said the Chinese “are playing the long game.”

Meanwhile, the US Congress has seemingly given up its primary job of budgeting.