The head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, has warned that on-and-off Chinese military exercises around Taiwan are not drills, but “rehearsals” for a potential invasion and that China is on “a dangerous course.”
A Wall Street Journal article published on Tuesday reported on an event in Hawaii “attended by the US and more than two dozen allies to sharpen their ability to jointly fight against Beijing.”
One of the speakers was Paparo, a four-star admiral who oversees US forces in the Indo-Pacific region, who laid out a scenario of how to counter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan after warning that “China is on a dangerous course” and that its large-scale drills around Taiwan were “rehearsals, not exercises,” the Journal reported.
Photo: AP
He said the key to an initial stage of a US-China showdown over Taiwan would be “to neutralize China’s radar sites, missile launchers and command centers that hold off the US and its allies,” the Journal said.
China has several types of anti-ship missiles, a sizeable lead in advanced hypersonic weaponry and an edge in its proximity to Taiwan, but the addition of US precision-strike missiles that can sink ships is a “game changer” that “alters China’s risk calculus,” Paparo was cited as saying.
“So, too, do a pair of agile forces working closely with US allies near Taiwan that can hit Chinese targets from land, collect valuable battle space information, and create openings for US air and naval forces to maneuver,” he was cited as saying.
Paparo is known for coining the term “Hellscape” strategy to defend a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
He first used the term during a conference in June last year and reiterated it during a US congressional hearing in Washington last month.
The strategy is that as soon as Chinese forces begin moving across the Taiwan Strait, allied forces would deploy numerous uncrewed submarines, uncrewed surface ships and aerial drones to prevent the advancement of troops.
China has conducted more extensive military drills, including in areas surrounding Taiwan, since its response to then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
The most recent large-scale exercises were the two-day “Strait Thunder-2025A” drills last month in parts of the Taiwan Strait conducted by the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command.
These exercises were to serve as “a stern warning” to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said.
Also on Tuesday, US Representative Zach Nunn posted on social media a clip of an interview he did with Falun Gong-affiliated New Tang Dynasty Television on his recent discussion with Paparo on what the US would do should China invade Taiwan.
Nunn said in the interview that as 90 percent of the world’s advanced semiconductors are produced in Taiwan, a decision by China to embargo, blockade or outright invade Taiwan could result in “economic destruction that would rot over the entire world.”
“We’re talking about things we haven’t seen since World War II, economic GDP collapses. No one wants to see this happen, including the American people, or candidly, the Chinese people,” Nunn said. “So we need to have a real-world assessment of what needs to happen.”
During his recent meeting with Paparo, Nunn said he was told that Washington has a “minute-by-minute approach to how to deter, how to stop and how to respond if a Chinese incursion was made in a military sense, upon the island of Taiwan,” but offered no details.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
COOLING OFF: Temperatures are expected to fall to lows of about 20°C on Sunday and possibly 18°C to 19°C next week, following a wave of northeasterly winds on Friday The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Sunday forecast more rain and cooler temperatures for northern Taiwan this week, with the mercury dropping to lows of 18°C, as another wave of northeasterly winds sweeps across the country. The current northeasterly winds would continue to affect Taiwan through today, with precipitation peaking today, bringing increased rainfall to windward areas, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. The weather system would weaken slightly tomorrow before another, stronger wave arrives on Friday, lasting into next week, Liu said. From yesterday to today, northern Taiwan can expect cool, wet weather, with lows of 22°C to 23°C in most areas,
RSS