CIA: China is waging a 'quiet kind of cold war' against US

Aspen — A top CIA expert on Asia warns that China is waging a "quiet kind of cold war" against the US, using all its resources to try to replace America as the leading power in the world.

Michael Collins, deputy assistant director of the CIA's East Asia mission center, says Beijing doesn't want to go to war, but the current communist government is subtly working on multiple fronts to undermine the US.

Beyond trade disputes, there is US concern over China's theft of business secrets, its defense modernisation and its construction of military outposts on islands in the South China Sea.

Collins dubbed that the "Crimea of the East" — a reference to Russia's brash annexation of Crimea.

Collins spoke on Friday at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.