A senior US Air Force general has predicted that the US and China are likely to go to war by 2025 amid rising cross-strait tensions.
The ominous warning was delivered in a memo on Friday by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, who oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft.
Sent to officers in charge of about 107,000 military personnel under Minihan’s command, the notice instructs soldiers to prepare for the conflict by firing “a magazine” at targets – and “aiming for the head”.
The most dramatic message yet from a military officer about the looming likelihood of war over Taiwan, a crucial “bottleneck” in the South China Sea of strategic interest to both Beijing and Washington.
The ominous warning was delivered in a memo on Friday by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, who oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft. The four-star general, responsible for approximately 50,000 troops, is seen at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in 2012
The internal memorandum — dated February 1 of this year — was first reported by NBC News and contains several pointers for soldiers in the event of the likely conflict
“Hope I’m wrong,” Minihan wrote in the relevant correspondence, which circulated on social media and has since been verified as genuine by the Pentagon.
“My gut feeling tells me that we will fight in 2025.”
The internal memorandum – dated February 1 of this year – was first reported by NBC News and was viewed by .
It contains several pointers servicewomen and men under his command should take to prepare for the upcoming conflict, which the 56-year-old four-star general says is escalating due to a series of circumstances that will embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping becomes more likely.
The internal memorandum – dated February 1 of this year – was first reported by NBC News and was viewed by
Minihan wrote that since both Taiwan and the US will have presidential elections in 2024, both countries would be “distracted,” giving Jinping a chance to move around the country.
Minihan wrote: “Xi secured his third term [as Communist party general secretary] and adjust [sic] its war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections will be held in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason.”
Minihan said the 2024 US presidential election – which will likely see current President Joe Biden square off with a previously unknown GOP candidate – would create a “distracted America” from which Xi’s government would benefit.
The memo warns that conflict is likely to emerge due to a number of circumstances that will embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping, including upcoming elections in the US and Taiwan
Minihan said the 2024 US presidential election – which will likely see current President Joe Biden square off with an as yet unknown GP candidate – would create a “distracted America” from which Xi’s government would benefit
“Xi’s team, sanity and opportunity are all aligned to 2025,” he wrote.
The four-star general went on to explain that the US’ primary goal should be to “deter” a conflict with China, but addressed five different clues, including those titled “end state” and “risk,” as one says could “defeat” the country .
To prepare, Minihan — who joined the Air Force as an officer in 1990 — instructs airmen qualified to use a weapon to “fire a magazine at a 23-foot target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality is at hand.” is most important”.
“Aim for the head,” he specified.
The memo then urges the tens of thousands of soldiers under his command to prepare for war in other ways, by reconsidering “their personal affairs” and making their training more aggressive.
Minihan wrote that both countries would be “distracted,” giving Jinping an opportunity to leave the country. President Biden and Xi had their first face-to-face meeting in November at a summit of leaders in Indonesia
“Run consciously, not recklessly,” wrote Minihan, who took up his current post with the Air Force’s Mobility Command Unit in 2021. He added, “If you’re comfortable with your approach to training, you’re not taking enough risk.”
And as tensions remain high between the two countries over the self-governing island nation, the veteran general said he aspires to “build a reinforced, deployable, integrated and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team that is ready to fight” — “and win.” “. Air and sea battles before Taiwan can be taken.
The memo comes as tensions remain extremely high over Taiwan, a country that emerged after China’s communist revolution — and one over which Beijing has long claimed sovereignty as part of mainland China.
In line with Western free-market values, the democratic country has since managed to build one of the strongest economies in the world, fueled by its $115 billion semiconductor industry.
Though the country insists on its independence from mainland China, its status as the last, non-Communist-controlled bastion in the chain of islands that cuts China off from the Pacific has brought it increasingly into conflict with its nemesis across the Taiwan Strait — and crucial routes for maritime trade.
Meanwhile, China has continued to send processions of fighter jets and battleships near Taiwan in an apparent and ongoing show of force amid the burgeoning conflict. On Jan. 10, the People’s Liberation Army of China flew 57 warplanes and four ships toward Taiwan
The area also provides an entry point for US forces into the country in the event of a conflict, meaning that should Chinese forces take over, Beijing would gain a strategic foothold against the US in its ongoing standoff over the important strait.
Moreover, the general’s warning comes just a week before Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to become the first cabinet secretary in President Joe Biden’s government to visit China, after Biden first met Xi in Indonesia in November.
Meanwhile, China has continued to send processions of fighter jets and battleships near Taiwan in an apparent and ongoing show of force amid the burgeoning conflict.
Earlier this month, the People’s Liberation Army of China flew 57 warplanes and four ships towards Taiwan, the Taiwan Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday morning.
A Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies at an undisclosed location (file photo) as one of several fighter jets and naval vessels heading for Taiwan on January 9, 2023 amid rising U.S.-China tensions
Twenty-eight of those planes crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary where both sides had previously stood.
According to a statement by Shi Yi, a spokesman for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, China said the “main objective of the drills is to practice land strikes and sea strikes.”
Days earlier, the US Navy sent a destroyer through the delicate Taiwan Straits in a show of force.
In a statement, the US military said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Chung-Hoon conducted the transit.
“Chung-Hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement added.
The entire operation was said to have been conducted in accordance with international laws.
Over the summer, Chinese military officials continued to stoke flames in a bid to fuel a possible conflict by conducting large-scale drills in Taiwanese airspace — including firing rockets in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei , Taiwan’s capital.
Adding to the tension is the fact that since taking office in 2020, Biden has repeatedly said he would order military intervention should China attack Taiwan.
The claims came as a surprise to some as they ran counter to longstanding US policy regarding China and Taiwan’s ongoing Cold War, which it has described as “strategic ambiguity,” according to which officials in Washington have no plans regarding the conflict between the two disclose countries.