Gordon Chang warns China 'configuring its military to kill Americans'

The United States shouldn't be enriching "a hostile regime" that is "configuring its military to kill Americans," China analyst Gordon Chang said Monday.

In an interview on Fox News, Chang expressed support for President Trump's consideration of completely decoupling the U.S. economy from China, calling the move "absolutely a good idea."

TRUMP OPEN TO DECOUPLING FROM CHINA

"China is configuring its military to kill Americans," Chang told "Bill Hemmer Reports."

"We shouldn’t be enriching a hostile regime with our trade and with our investment. I believe that decoupling is what we absolutely have to do especially this year."

Chang's comments follow a recent Pentagon report suggesting that China is planning to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads in this decade -- including those designed for ballistic missiles and that can reach the U.S. The report adds a time clock to Trump's decision, Chang said.

"[President] Xi Jinping has been talking increasingly about this notion that China has a mandate of heaven to rule the world," Chang explained. "They [beleive that they] not only have the right to do it, they have the obligation to do it.

"He’s become very specific about this in public and so have his officials, which means that they are trying to change the international system, not to compete within it," Chang said.

CHINA PLANNING TO DOUBLE STOCKPILE OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS: PENTAGON

"The Coming Collapse of China" author warned that the Chinese government is working fast to counter a "closing window of opportunity because of the problems in the economy, in the environment, demography.

"I think China believes it needs to move fast and that means we’re going to see problems not in the 2030s, we’re going to see problems now," he emphasized.

Trump raised the possibility of severing ties with the Communist country during an exclusive interview with Fox News' Steve Hilton last month.

"There has been no country that has ripped us off more than China...," Trump said at the time. "We lose billions, hundreds of billions of dollars. We get nothing from China. Yes, we get some goods that we could produce ourselves….[but] we get nothing. All we do is lose money."

As far as his landmark trade deal signed by both countries in January, Trump said the agreement is "longer the same to me" after their mishandling of the coronavirus and that "if they don't treat us right," he would "certainly" part ways with Beijing.