US Military Isn’t Prepared to Face Worst Enemies

• The U.S. military is at risk of being unable to defend America’s national interests against foes such as China, Russia, and Iran, concludes The Heritage Foundation’s new Index of U.S. Military Strength.
• This is the inevitable result of years of prolonged deployments, underfunding, poorly defined priorities, wildly shifting security policies, exceedingly poor discipline in program execution, and a profound lack of seriousness across the national security establishment even as threats to U.S. interests have surged.
• Here are four reasons why the US military isn’t prepared to face its worst enemies:
• First, Heritage’s new report assesses China as the “most comprehensive and daunting national security challenge” to U.S. interests.
• Second, the U.S. decision to shoulder a large burden to defend Ukraine against Russia contributed to the decline of the military.
• Third, the aggregate score for America’s major military branches is “weak,” the index concludes. Only the Marine Corps gained a positive score of “strong.”
• Fourth, Heritage’s new report warns of the growing threat from Iran as a “nuclear threshold state controlling a constellation of terrorist groups.”

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Now Is the Time to End America’s Energy Dependence on Russia

• After Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the U.S. was quick to ban imports of Russian gas and oil. But imports of low-enriched uranium remain largely unimpeded — and highly lucrative for Moscow.
• America is a major consumer of low-enriched uranium. We rely on nuclear energy for just over 18% of our electricity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, America’s commercial reactor operators got 24% of their enrichment services from Russia in 2022.
• We and our allies pay for this dependence. In 2022, U.S. companies sent over $850 million to Russia for nuclear fuel services. Adding in our European allies raises that amount to $1.7 billion. Not only does America depend on Russia for nuclear fuel, but we are helping fund the Kremlin’s war.
• House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) introduced a bill, passed by the House late last year, that would ban commercial reactors in the U.S. from using Russian uranium fuel starting 90 days after it becomes law.
• This bill provides nuclear plants with the ability to transition away from Russian fuel without plant shutdowns that would harm the public; legislators should be careful, however, that the waiver is not exploited to get around the ban.
• Explicitly stating how much Russian uranium will be allowed in America and for how long would provide the enrichment industry with the certainty it needs to justify the major capital investments necessary to replace Russian fuel entirely.

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What’s China Hiding? New Report Exposes Truth About China’s Deceptions

• From covering up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to using dangerous apps like TikTok to compromise Americans’ personal information, the Chinese Communist Party has long cloaked its nefarious activities in secrecy.
• As a new report from The Heritage Foundation assesses, China’s lack of transparency is part of a larger strategy to deceive its adversaries. Based on data pulled together from various sources, the report exposes many things China has gone to great lengths to hide, including its inhumane practices in Xinjiang, its influence operations to distort global media, and the unreported millions of Chinese citizens who likely died from COVID-19 within its borders.
• The 2024 China Transparency Report assesses the current state of the People’s Republic of China’s transparency on eight key issues: its economy, energy and the environment, human rights, influence operations, the military, outbound investment into other nations, politics and law, and technology.
• This report will help lead the way in exposing the truth about the Chinese Communist Party and the consequences of its authoritarian rule and the secrecy and deception it practices with the rest of the world. Armed with credible, in-depth, and transparent data on China, America’s policymakers can ensure they know as precisely as possible the nature of this adversary they must confront.

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