US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday said America is facing “growing threats” from China and Russia and warned that the military’s advantages have eroded in recent years.

“We face growing threats from revisionist powers as different as China and Russia, nations that seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models,” Mattis said as he unveiled the Pentagon’s national defense strategy.

“Our military is still strong, yet our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare,” he added.

Mattis also said that Iran and North Korea “threaten regional and even global stability”.

He also said that a potential government shutdown would impact military operations including some training, maintenance, and intelligence operations.

“Our maintenance activities will probably pretty much shut down... over 50 percent, altogether of my civilian workforce will be furloughed... we do a lot of intelligence operations around the world and they cost money, those obviously would stop,” Mattis said in response to a question about the impact of a potential shutdown.

Source: Alarabiya