Warning of China: US admiral considers attack on Taiwan possible - Beijing reserves the right to take violent action

A US admiral believes a Chinese attack on Taiwan is possible within the next six years.

It is true that the US military is far superior to the armed forces of Beijing.

But China is gearing up - also with a view to Taiwan.

Munich - Tensions have been growing along the Taiwan Strait for years.

Over the past year, Chinese planes have entered Taiwanese airspace hundreds of times.

China also installed a massive missile arsenal on the coast across from what China regards as a breakaway province.

The loss of Taiwan to the nationalists of the Kuomintang Party at the end of the civil war in 1949 remains a sore point for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to this day.

She has therefore never ruled out a violent reunification.

Under President Xi Jinping, the pressure from nationalist forces in the military, for example, to solve the Taiwan question - if necessary with force.

According to some US military officials, the threat to Taiwan remains acute.

It is quite possible that China's People's Liberation Army will attack Taiwan within the next six years - i.e. before 2027 - said Admiral Philip Davidson, who is responsible for the Asia-Pacific region, on Tuesday (local time) in a committee of the US Senate in Washington.

"The threat is clearly this decade, to be clear, the next six years," said Davidson.

Chinese Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian replied on Wednesday that the US wanted to "aggravate" the dispute over Taiwan's future and was looking for an excuse to increase its military spending, strengthen its troops and "meddle" in regional affairs.

China: Modernize armed forces and start increasing defense spending

So far, the strength of the US presence in East Asia stands in the way of Chinese plans to conquer Taiwan.

In 2021, US military spending will be well over US $ 700 billion, a multiple of that of China - even if it is de facto higher than officially stated.

On the sidelines of the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced that the military budget this year will increase by 6.8 percent to around 1.35 trillion yuan (equivalent to US $ 208 billion or EUR 175 billion).

This increase is at the same level as in previous years.

Experts in the West believe that the official annual budget does not include all defense spending.

The respected trade magazine

Janes,

for example, estimates that actual spending in 2021 will be around 25 percent higher than the official budget - the equivalent of around US $ 262 billion.

According to research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), some military-related expenses are allocated to other budgets, including funds for the armed people's paramilitary police, as well as for research, construction projects or pensions for veterans.

+

China developed amphibious aircraft like the "Kunlong" AG600, not least with a view to landing in Taiwan (archive picture).

© Li Ziheng / picture alliance / dpa / Xinhua

China has been working to modernize the military for years.

The number of active soldiers has been reduced from six to two million over the past 40 years.

At the same time, Beijing increasingly focused on technology and modern weapon systems.

According to reports from the Hong Kong

South China Morning Post,

for example,

in recent years

China has

advanced the development of advanced combat aircraft, autonomous combat robots and biological technologies such as powered exoskeletons.

China now has two aircraft carriers;

two more are under construction.

The number of nuclear warheads is estimated at 200-300 - about as many as France or Great Britain.

Beijing always insists that its armed forces are for defense purposes only.

USA: Concerns about arming the Chinese People's Liberation Army

The United States and its allies have viewed the armament of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) with suspicion for years.

China is pursuing an expansive policy at sea and has even threatened the island of Guam, an outlying area of ​​the United States in the Pacific, said Admiral Davidson.

The Chinese military released a video showing a simulated attack on an island with facilities similar to those on Diego Garcia and Guam.

The commander of the US military base on Guam, Brigadier General Jeremy Sloane, had dismissed the video distributed in September 2020 as "pure propaganda".

It contains, among other things, scenes from the Hollywood film

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

.

Beijing never commented on the video.

Admiral Davidson called on the Senators to approve the installation of anti-missile defense systems on Guam.

China should feel that the costs of its expansion policy are "too high".

He fears that China will push the US out of its leadership role in the "regulated international order" by 2050, said Davidson.

Guam must be defended and prepared for threats that "lie ahead" in the future.

Together with Japan and Australia, the United States held a multi-day air force maneuver in Guam in February.

Taiwan: USA is the main arms supplier for protection against China

In 1979 the US broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in order to recognize the People's Republic as the sole representative of China.

However, even after this decision, the US remained Taiwan's most powerful ally and largest arms supplier.

The new US President Joe Biden stressed in January that US support for Taiwan was "rock solid".

Taiwanese representative Hsiao Bi-khim was even officially invited to Biden's inauguration - an unprecedented political gesture.

Relations between China and the US have been strained for years.

The areas of conflict include trade policy, the origin of the corona pandemic, China's tough crackdown on Hong Kong and against the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

China always rejects the US allegations.

Biden recently spoke of an "extreme competition" between the two great powers and is looking to join forces with the EU and other democratic states in dealing with China.

On Tuesday, the US also confirmed high-level diplomatic contacts.

The Hong Kong

South China Morning Post

had previously reported on the preparation of a high-level meeting of both sides in Anchorage, Alaksa state.

(ck, with AFP)