US warns China could invade Taiwan “within six years”

China could invade Taiwan in the next six years to achieve its stated ambition to replace the United States as the premier military power in the Pacific Oceanthe commander of US forces in the region, Admiral Philip Davidson, warned on Tuesday.

“I fear they will speed up their plans to supplant the United States … by 2050,” the head of the Indo-Pacific Military Command (Indopacom) told a Senate committee. “I’m afraid they want to achieve their goal sooner than expected.”

“It is clear that Taiwan is part of their ambitions and I think the threat is evident in the next decade, in fact the next six years.”he added.

The United States severed formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 and has since recognized Beijing as China’s sole official representative, but it remains Taiwan’s most powerful ally and its main arms supplier.

China, however, regards the island as its province and threatens to take it back by force in the event of a formal declaration of independence or foreign intervention. Taiwan, for its part, has been considered a sovereign territory with its own government and political system under the name of the Republic of China since the end of the civil war between nationalists and communists in 1949.

After reestablishing control of Hong Kong, Beijing issued repeated warnings to Taipei with shows of force and attempts to prevent navigation in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the two territories.

At the end of January, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported that thirteen Chinese fighter jets had passed the Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), the highest number in 2021. As of October last year, at least 19 Chinese military planes entered the Taiwanese ADIZ while Chinese J-16 fighters crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait in September.

China, which also has territorial ambitions in the South China Sea (off Vietnam and the Philippines in particular), in the East China Sea (on the Senkaku Islands under Japanese control) and in the Himalayas off the coast of the India, it even threatens the American Pacific Island. from Guam, Admiral Davidson noted.

“Guam is a target today,” he warned, recalling that the Chinese military released a promotional video last year showing pilots attacking a military base on the island, 2,500 km away. east of the Philippines.

Davidson called on members of the Senate to approve the installation in Guam of an advanced Aegis Ashore missile battery capable of intercepting China’s most powerful projectiles.

Guam “must be defended and must be prepared for future threats, because I’m clear that Guam is no longer just a place we think we can fight from. “he added. “We’re going to have to fight for her.”

In addition to three other Aegis missile defense systems for Australia and Japan, Admiral Davidson called on members of Congress to include offensive weapons in the 2022 military budget “for let China know that the cost of what it is trying to do is too high and make it doubt its chances of success. “

With information from AFP

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