China is on the warpath and is preparing to unleash a “storm” on Taiwan, a former top US intelligence officer warned.
The doomsday prediction comes from Mike Studeman, a former commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and director for intelligence of the Indo-Pacific Command.
China’s President, Xi Jinping, has long seen it as his historical mission to reunite Taiwan with the mainland and has referred to reunification as the essence of national rejuvenation.
Beijing has steadily been ratcheting up the psychological pressure on Taipei, sending its warplanes to violate Taiwan’s airspace on an ever-increasing basis.
In an analysis for the website warontherocks.com, Mr Studeman pointed to several factors that clearly indicated that the Chinese strongman was on the “march to war”.
Firstly, he argued that leadership changes implemented at the 20th Party Congress in 2022 had turned the Politburo into a de-facto war cabinet.
Fifteen out of its 24 members now had considerable Taiwan-related experience, whose knowledge and expertise would be crucial in a potential war scenario.
The former US commander then highlighted the immense drive to modernise and expand the army of the People’s Republic.
He said: “China’s hyper-militarisation represents the greatest build-up of arms since the end of the Cold War.
“In 2020, Xi accelerated significant military milestones from 2035 to 2027 because he wanted China’s military to modernise faster and give him Taiwan options earlier.
“The People’s Liberation Army has since built vast underground complexes, a modernised and proliferated space layer, thick aircraft and air defences, and the world’s largest navy.”
He added: “China also created a Strategic Support Force, which integrates space, electronic warfare, and cyber capabilities.
“And it boasts the most active and sophisticated ballistic missile force in the world.”
At the same time, China has invested vast resources into bringing its nuclear forces up to speed.
Mr Studeman noted that the former commander of US Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, repeatedly called China’s nuclear force advances “breathtaking,” “explosive,” and a “strategic breakout.”
He went on to describe Xi’s drive to prioritise security over the economy as “perhaps the most telling of all war preparation indicators.”
The former naval commander said Xi had studied the impact of Western sanctions on Russia and had subsequently taken measures to ensure China’s economy could resist similar pressure.
In a gloomy conclusion, he predicted that a storm from Beijing was heading to Taiwan.