Bangladesh, May 23 -- In a stark redefinition of global strategic threats, CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis has labeled China as the foremost “existential threat” to American national security, highlighting a shifting geopolitical landscape increasingly shaped by economic, technological, and strategic rivalry. In a May 21 interview with Axios, Ellis outlined how the US intelligence community is recalibrating its approach to confront Beijings growing clout-not through traditional military brinkmanship, but by waging a new kind of competition centered on economic influence and technological supremacy.

Unlike the Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union, which was largely characterized by military standoffs and ideological ...