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WASHINGTON: China could invade Taiwan in the next six years as Beijing accelerates its moves to supplant US military power in Asia, a senior US commander said on Tuesday (March 9).
Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion from China, whose leaders see the island as part of their territory and which they have promised to one day recover.
“I am concerned that they are (China) accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the rules-based international order … by 2050,” said Washington’s top military officer in Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson.
“Taiwan is clearly one of his ambitions before that. And I think the threat manifests itself during this decade, in fact, in the next six years,” he told a US Senate committee.
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Taiwan seceded from China at the end of a civil war in 1949. Washington changed Taiwan’s diplomatic recognition to China in 1979, but it remains the island’s most important unofficial ally and military backer.
Donald Trump embraced warmer ties with Taiwan while battling with China on issues such as trade and national security.
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The Biden administration has offered Taiwan cause for optimism for continued support, with the State Department saying in January that the United States’ commitment to the island was “rock solid.”
Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States was formally invited to Biden’s inauguration, a move unprecedented since 1979.
China has also made expansive territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea and even threatens the US island of Guam, Davidson stressed.
“Guam is a target today,” he warned, recalling that the Chinese army published a video that simulates an attack on an island base very similar to the US facilities in Diego García and Guam.
READ: US base commander calls video of Chinese attack on Guam ‘propaganda’
He called on lawmakers to approve the installation in Guam of an Aegis Ashore anti-missile battery, capable of intercepting China’s most powerful missiles in flight.
Guam “must be defended and must be prepared for the threats that will come in the future,” Davidson said.
In addition to other Aegis missile defense systems targeting Australia and Japan, Davidson asked lawmakers to budget for offensive weaponry “so China knows that the costs of what they are looking to do are too high.”
