Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia sends a “troubling message, a message of support,” says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

He also warned that the U.S. must be ready for possible confrontation with Beijing as he pushed Congress to approve the Defense Department’s proposed $842 billion budget.

“This is a strategy-driven budget — and one driven by the seriousness of our strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Austin said in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

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