THE US is gearing up for “World War III” with China after Congress passed a multibillion defence Bill on Friday which President Donald Trump had previously vetoed.

Republicans and Democrats joined forces to pass the wide-ranging National Defence Authorisation Act by 81 votes to 14, reaching the two-thirds majority required to override Mr Trump’s veto.

The 4,500-page defence legislation sets out the US military priorities for the year ahead, with $750 billion (£548bn) committed to the country’s armed forces in the rare New Year’s Day session.

It contains a number of provisions, including a new “Pacific Deterrence Initiative” which will see the Pentagon spend $18.5bn (£13.5bn) over the next five years as it expands military capabilities in the region.

China is confirmed as the major perceived threat to the US which, under Mr Trump, increased hostilities with a series of threatening provocations, sanctions and a trade war.

Speaking in the debate, Republican Senator James Inhofe — chairman of the Senate armed services committee which drafted the Bill — said: “We are in the most dangerous situation that we’ve been in before.”

He insisted that Beijing was preparing for “World War III” through its construction of military bases in the South China Sea, which lies thousands of miles from the US mainland.

His remarks were supported by the senior Democrat who sits on the Senate armed services committee, Jack Reed.

Mr Reed commented: “This is the first time we have really stepped back and said: ‘We have a new threat rising in the Pacific. We have to take a holistic view’.”

It’s believed that the incoming Biden administration will not drastically alter course from the aggressive stance of its predecessor.

Last month the US’s senior intelligence official, John Ratcliffe, penned an explosive article in the Wall Street Journal saying that China was “bent on world domination.”

The US director of national intelligence urged Washington to prepare for an “open-ended period of confrontation.”

But Beijing dismissed the article as a “concoction of lies.”

The December 4 diatribe branded China “the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II,” insisting that it was responsible for interference on US soil, although presenting no evidence for the assertion.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that relations between the two nations were “at a crossroads” but insisted they could get back on the right track.