A senior U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) official is warning that China may potentially move to annex Taiwan by the end of 2022.
“It’s not just what [Chinese President Xi Jinping] says, but it’s how the Chinese behave and what they do. And what we’ve seen over the last 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they’ve made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it,” Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of U.S. naval operations, warned in a recent discussion at the Atlantic Council.
“So when we talk about the 2027 window in my mind, that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window. I can’t rule that out,” he said. “I don’t mean at all to be alarmist by saying that, its just that we can’t wish that away.”
Adm. Gilday’s assessment came within days of China’s state-run media calling reunification with Taiwan “inevitable and necessary.”
His warning also followed remarks from Jinping at the China Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th National Congress, promising his nation’s reunification with Taiwan.
Shortly after Xi declared “the wheels of history are rolling on toward China’s reunification,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded that China is accelerating its timeline to re-take Taiwan — by force, if necessary.
“There has been a change in the approach from Beijing toward Taiwan in recent years. And instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, [there was] a fundamental decision that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” Blinken said on a panel with two former officials.
“And if peaceful means didn’t work, then [Beijing] would employ coercive means — and possibly, if coercive means don’t work, maybe forceful means — to achieve its objectives. And that is what is profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions,” he explained.
Military experts have argued that foreign policy crises brought about by the Biden administration have projected weakness, which may trigger Beijing to re-evaluate its timetable for an attempt to recapture Taiwan.
Chen Ming-tong, Taiwan’s top spy chief, warned Beijing officials that there is “no chance of winning an armed attack on Taiwan,” adding that the only outcome would be international sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
Reunification is a central feature of China’s 2049 Initiative — what it calls the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation” — which seeks to have China as the world’s dominant superpower.
