Posted on 03/24/2021 7:12:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
A top U.S. admiral warned lawmakers Tuesday that the possibility of China attempting to invade and annex Taiwan is a “critical concern” and could happen sooner than most people think.
Adm. John Aquilino, currently the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was responding to questions from Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to become head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
“Why would Beijing so desire to have Taiwan annexed to the mainland, and how would it complicate your military planning if Beijing did invade and annex Taiwan?” Cotton asked.
“They view it as their number one priority,” Aquilino responded, referring to China’s likely future attempt to annex Taiwan. “The rejuvenation of the Chinese Communist Party is at stake.”
When Cotton asked about a recent prediction from Adm. Philip Davidson, the current head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, that China could attempt to invade Taiwan within the next six years, Aquilino did not endorse that specific timeline. He said “there’s many numbers out there” for a potential invasion timeline ranging from “today to 2045.”
Aquilino later called for a nearly $5 billion fund known as the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) to be instituted “in the near term and with urgency.” The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a budget for PDI to Congress in early March that included $27 billion in proposed spending through 2027. The initiative aims to bolster U.S. military capabilities in the Pacific with the ultimate aim of deterring Chinese aggression, particularly an invasion of Taiwan.
When asked about the Defense Department’s confidence in preventing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan during a press briefing Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby declined to “speculate about potential future operations” but said “nobody wants this to result in conflict.”
Just like runaway inflation, but nobody cares.
Weak leadership invites aggression. We have weak leadership.
It’s gonna be awesome.
I see no chance that the US will fight China over Taiwan.
And although Taiwan is quite capable militarily, without US support, I think they might just decide to surrender — why be devastated when the conclusion is forgone? Taiwan is capable, but not going to beat China. They can see the writing on the wall. I think this will be like Hitler taking Austria.
Adm. John Aquilino just signed his own Discharge papers...but he don’t know it, yet! ;)
A very poor analogy.
And when Taiwan goes with the US doing nothing our entire chain of alliances goes. But at least the US military is woke.
The Chinese may never have a better chance to take Taiwan.
They have a brain dead US administration—no guarantee it will stay that way indefinitely.
Weakness and stupidity invites war.
It’s been on my radar for several years. They could easily do it now probably without military repercussions, but the political and economic ones could be unbearable.
Gold and silver are, IMO, an excellent buying opportunity right now. Just sayin’...
I’ve heard some commentator (Steyn?) say that currently the US is seen as “Not Agreement Capable”. Because of basic lack of leadership, and domestic political divisions, the world just doesn’t trust us to keep our world. The US is too unreliable to deal with right now.
The weakest ever.
Joey Sock Puppet literally can’t think.
I think the fallout for china would not be military. Rather, economic and political.
Then again, imagine a full US embargo on Chinese goods. What would Amazon do? :)
There WOULD be pain all around. Get your Chines tools while you can!
I would be very worried if I lived in Taiwan. When (not if) China invades and annexes Taiwan, all Biden will do is give them a stern talking to and threaten to cut off their Netflix accounts.
Of course, Biden will not go so far as to actually cut off their Netflix accounts, because that would be mean.
If China is going to to it their best option is to do so while Biden is still in office. He is weak and they have tons of dirt on him - him responding decisively is unlikely.
The central question is: Will the people of Taiwan be actually willing to fight an all out war to preserve their liberty and freedom? If they are so inclined ( which is by no means certain), then the CCP fearing the political consequences of a failed invasion or heavy casualties among their “one child” soldiers will continue to wait for a political transformation.
What a coinkidink.
I see zero chance that Biden’s corporate overlords at Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. will allow Biden to impose economic sanctions on China and cut them off from most of their suppliers and over a billion of their customers.
Closer than ‘most think’.
Yeah huh. It was overdue in the Obambam administration so now it’s really time during obambam2’s administration.
War is coming. Democraps are in charge.
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