PENTAGON ALARMED BY POSSIBILITY OF BEIJING INVADING TAIWAN
WASHINGTON—Amid increasing tensions with Beijing, the Pentagon on Tuesday released a new report that laid out US concerns about China’s growing military might, underscoring worries about a possible attack against Taiwan.
Speaking to reporters, a senior defense intelligence official said the key concern was that China had become more confident in its ability to wage a regional conflict.
No invasion capability
The official added, however, that although China could easily fire missiles at Taiwan, it didn’t yet have the military capability to successfully invade the self-governing island, which split from mainland China in 1949.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide more detail on the intelligence assessment authored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Its release came a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping called on China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to better prepare for combat and warned the United States against further upgrading military ties with Taiwan.
Last year, the Pentagon disinvited China to a major, multinational Pacific exercise, citing Beijing’s militarization of manmade islands in the South China Sea.
The US National Defense Strategy, also released last year, asserted that China’s rapidly expanding military and Russia’s increasing aggression were threatening America.
Just after taking over as the acting defense secretary, Pat Shanahan told his military service leaders on Jan. 2 that their focus should be “China, China, China.”
The DIA report talked about the steps China had taken to modernize its military.
‘Imminent conflict’
The worry, said the defense intelligence official, is that China would reach the point where leaders will decide that using force for a regional conflict such as Taiwan is more imminent.
“Beijing’s longstanding interest to eventually compel Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland and deter any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence has served as the primary driver for China’s military modernization,” the report said.
“Beijing’s anticipation that foreign forces would intervene in a Taiwan scenario led the PLA to develop a range of systems to deter and deny foreign regional force projection,” the report added.