Micah McCartney
Aformer top U.S. defense official has warned lawmakers that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is "no longer distant" amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Charles Flynn, retired general and former commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, also laid out the steps the People's Liberation Army would need to accomplish such a feat.
Why It Matters
China has vowed to unify with Taiwan, which it considers its territory, though the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled there. Beijing, in recent years, ramped up military activities around Taiwan to punish the island's Beijing-skeptic ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
U.S. officials believe Chinese leader Xi Jinping has instructed the People's Liberation Army to be capable of taking Taiwan by 2027, even if he does not necessarily intend to give the order that year. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in President Donald Trump's administration have stressed deterring China means making an invasion as costly as possible.
In his Thursday remarks at a House hearing focused on the Chinese Communist Party, retired General Charles Flynn, the former commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, told lawmakers that "the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is no longer distant or theoretical."
Flynn spoke at a hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Also testifying were Mark Montgomery, former director of operations at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and Kurt Campbell, deputy secretary of state from 2024 to 2025.
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