Halifax, Canada – The U.S. army’s top general in the Indo-Pacific warned about China’s unprecedented military buildup and what he characterized as Chinese general secretary Xi Jinping’s global aspirations.
That general, Charles Flynn, explained that new conflicts that have broken out over the past two years make the situation in the region even more perilous than it was before.
“There is a limited and regional war going on in Europe. There’s a limited, rather limited and regional war going on in the Middle East. And the last thing we can afford is another war in the Pacific,” said Flynn, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Pacific, on a panel at the Halifax International Security Forum this morning.
“It is a dangerous arsenal they have created,” Flynn said, adding that across his three assignments in the Indo-Pacific that the People’s Liberation Army’s capabilities in 2023 far exceed those every of other year he’s seen.
Flynn’s comments at the Halifax Internationtal Security Form —attended by officials from the U.S. and its allies — follow a series of new warnings by the Pentagon regarding the acceleration of Beijing’s military buildup and its dangerous conduct in the region. Last month, the Defense Department said that the growth of China’s nuclear arsenal “is on track to exceed our previous predictions,” and it released evidence of several unsafe intercepts of U.S. aircraft by PLA jets.
The White House has said that Beijing’s decision to break off military-to-military dialogue after former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year heightened the risk of conflict. After President Biden met Xi this week on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco, China’s leadership agreed to resume high-level military contact.
Flynn said that solidifying U.S. alliances in the region and Biden’s other engagements at APEC and recent meetings with leaders in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia were positive developments.
He also said that he believes Xi’s calculus on Taiwan depends on four possible “go/ no-go criteria” that could hold him back from launching a war: economic sanctions, whether China can fracture U.S. alliances, the ability of the PLA to conduct a cross-strait invasion, and the state of Beijing’s efforts to shape global narratives to its advantage.
“He has a regional desire to be hegemonic, and then he’s got global aspirations,” Flynn said, later adding that Beijing “must win the region first.”
U.S. Army’s Top General in the Pacific Warns of Growing Chinese Military Capabilities
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18.11.2023
Halifax, Canada – The U.S. army’s top general in the Indo-Pacific warned about China’s unprecedented military buildup and what he characterized as Chinese general secretary Xi Jinping’s global aspirations.
That general, Charles Flynn, explained that new conflicts that have broken out over the past two years make the situation in the region even more perilous than it was before.
“There is a limited and regional war going on in Europe. There’s a limited, rather limited and regional war going on in the Middle East. And the last thing we can afford is another war in the Pacific,” said Flynn, the commanding........
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