Ex-CIA Chief: Easing China Into Global System 'Serious' Security Challenge

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The former top US spy explained that China would likely become more of a threat in the next decade, but he did not think Beijing was a threat like al-Qaeda or North Korea.

"[T]he accommodation of the People’s Republic into a stable global system is the most serious security challenge we have, but we do have some time," Hayden said, speaking to a crowd at the Washington, DC-based American Enterprise Institute.

"Now that's not gonna go bump tonight, but if and when it does go bump it's worse than what we're worried about because of Brussels," Hayden said referring to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital.

The US-China relationship has been complicated in recent years by disagreements over Beijing’s control regarding several islands in the South China Sea. The United States, worried China is attempting to militarize the islands, has pledged to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in what is says are international waters.

Washington has underscored China’s important role in pressuring North Korea, especially given Pyongyang’s latest nuclear pursuits and regional provocations.

But Beijing maintains that the United States deploying anti-ballistic Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea is a threat to Chinese security.