The U.S. is "target one" for the Chinese Communist Party, and retired Gen. Jack Keane says that beefing up defenses to stand up against the threat should be high on the list of priorities.

"China is conducting the most comprehensive penetration of our society since we were formed 250 years ago, 249 years now, and we've never seen anything quite like this," he said Tuesday, weighing in on news that a third Chinese national has attempted to smuggle biological materials into the U.S. within the past week.

The Fox News senior strategic analyst joined "Mornings with Maria" where he spelled out the severity of the "comprehensive" threat – cyber espionage, working to interfere with the food supply, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and transportation.

"The list goes on," he pointed out.

"And in the event of this conflict with China in the Pacific, they would attempt to defeat the American people at home and break their will to support the war, and here we have a biological pathogen smuggling into the country that could attack our agriculture and ultimately our food source, and I think this is more exploration than anything else to detect and see how they can penetrate and how comprehensive this could be for the future."

The China threat has escalated of late, with Chinese nationals attempting to smuggle a dangerous crop-killing fungus into the U.S. last week.

The two "bioterrorism" suspects were intercepted in Detroit, Michigan, while allegedly attempting to smuggle Fusarium graminearum into the U.S. and study it in labs.

The toxic fungus causes a crop-killing "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice that "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year" and is also toxic to humans, according to the Department of Justice.

A Chinese PhD student from Wuhan was also recently arrested for allegedly sending packages containing concealed biological material to the U.S. from China in 2024 and 2025.

Fox News Digital's Peter D'Abrosca contributed to this report.