An unprovoked attack on Taiwan by China would result in “more robust” consequences than those Russia is facing over its invasion of Ukraine, the commander of the US Pacific Air Forces said on Monday.
As Beijing watches the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is hopefully learning the solidarity of the global community in opposing “an unprovoked attack on a neighbor,” General Kenneth Wilsbach said during a discussion streamed online by the US Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and covered by Air Force Magazine.
China hopefully recognizes that if it moves similarly against Taiwan or another neighbor, “something more robust will happen,” Wilsbach said, adding that such an attack would “provide solidarity” for nations to come together in opposition.
Photo: AP
Wilsbach also chuckled at Beijing’s accusation that the US is trying to form a “NATO of the Pacific,” saying it is China’s own actions that are inspiring such talk.
If it does attack Taiwan, China would also have to contend with inhospitable terrain and regional opposition, he said.
As for the military relationship between China and Russia, Wilsbach said that although they cooperate, their forces are not interoperable.
Photo: screen grab from US Air Force website
“There’s been a couple of other exercises that we’ve seen them do together, but I would not say that they’re interoperable in any way,” he said. “Their systems are quite different.”
They also have a competitive power dynamic, with each side believing they should be the leader, he said, adding that he was “fairly happy with that tension.”
That is in contrast to the interoperability of US, Japanese, South Korean, Australian and other regional forces — an advantage that China recognizes, Wilsbach said.
“We fly with them routinely and we’re interoperable,” he said. “We’re flying a lot of the same equipment. We’re even data-linking together in some cases and the tactics are very similar.”
Joint activity between China and Russia has also declined, with Russia “pretty well occupied” in Ukraine, he added.
Saying that China is being “pretty cautious” to avoid getting caught up in the backlash against Russia, Wilsbach said “it still is very surprising that they’ve come up with the support rhetoric that they have.”
At the same time, the US Air Force has continued conducting daily exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, although now they are “fully integrated” with the US Navy and Marine Corps “to demonstrate what US forces can do in that part of the world,” he said.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS