For years, and with increasing intensity, we have been told that the Chinese government is not only resolved to conquer the island of Taiwan by force, but, thanks to its well advertised build-up of military might, has the means to do so. “The threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years,” Admiral Phil Davidson,
the retiring head of the Indo-Pacific command told congress in 2021. The prediction that China would be ready to invade by 2027 has since become official dogma in Washington, spawning untold billions of dollars in defense spending pegged to this threat. Despite constant invocations of China’s expanding navy,
including amphibious capabilities, the Pentagon has studiously avoided telling us exactly how China could manage to move a necessarily enormous force across the stormy seas of the Taiwan strait and subdue the well-armed island.
Fortunately, we now have a clear-eyed examination of the reality behind the much ballyhooed threat. Marine veteran Dan Grazier is Director of the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C. As well as serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,
he was specifically trained in amphibious warfare. Grazier has taken the trouble to explore the practical difficulties facing anyone seeking to invade Taiwan. I spoke with him recently to discuss his conclusions, which he and Stimson colleague McKenna Rawlins have now laid out in a report due to bepublished this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment