The US military is confident that it would win a war against China if a conflict broke out in the Taiwan Strait, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Charles Q. Brown said at a forum on Saturday.
During an interview at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday, CNN reporter Jennifer Griffin asked Brown about the possible outcome of a US-China war in the Taiwan Strait.
“Can the US win a war against China if Beijing tries to take Taiwan, from your military perspective?” Griffin asked.
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“I’m fully confident in our forces. You should be too. We are the most lethal, most respected combat force in the world, and every nation I go to wants to be like us,” Brown said.
“We have to be an example. If we have a conflict with China, it has to be dealt with as a nation. If we are challenged by the PRC [People’s Republic of China], we will be there,” he said.
Commenting on how a US-China war would play out, he said it would be as brutal as World War II.
Brown said he believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is focused on the logistics of a potential invasion before sending troops across the Taiwan Strait.
Also speaking at the forum, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that war in the Taiwan Strait would be “calamitous for everyone,” and that it remained “of paramount importance to US policy” that peace and stability in the Strait be maintained.
Asked by a reporter whether the US should ramp up its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region, Sullivan said that the US had already been strengthening multinational partnerships with allies in the region.
Citing partnerships with Australia, the Philippines and Japan, Sullivan said that “the combination of these activities will have a material impact on the physical presence and distribution of force of the United States” in the region, “not to start a war, but to prevent a war.”
Separately, while speaking with US National Public Radio’s Louise Kelly during the forum, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a Taiwan crisis is a world crisis.
“If there were to be a crisis over Taiwan, it would be a crisis that affects quite literally everyone in the world, not just the immediate neighbors,” Blinken said.
The US was “impressing upon China the imperative of not having a crisis, not stirring the pot, not disturbing the status quo, preserving peace and stability,” he said. “The more you have that collective weight on China, I think, the more they’re likely to not lead us in that direction.”
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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