China is preparing for invasion and occupation of Taiwan to kick-start its expansionist campaigns, and President Joe Biden is not prepared.
Adm. John Aquilino, U.S. Navy commander and head of the Indo-Pacific forces, told the House Armed Services Committee that America is steadily less prepared for a war with China that now appears to be right around the corner.
He confirmed the claim of the Taiwanese foreign minister that China will soon be prepared for war: “All indications point to the PLA meeting President Xi Jinping’s directive to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.”
His concern is that “our economic and technological advantages over the PRC continue to narrow,” and that “the most dangerous national security challenges are evolving faster than our current government processes allow us to address them.”
The greatest threat Aquilino points out is the rapid development of China’s military, which he said is “on a scale not seen since World War II” and in all fields. Since Biden’s election, China’s defense budget has increased 16%, it has built 400 advanced fighters and 20 warships, doubled its missile inventory, launched five times more satellites than it already had, and grown its nuclear warhead arsenal by over 100%. It is also developing space weapons.
It is not a walk in the park for China yet, fortunately. China is struggling under the weight of its fragile economic infrastructure. Massive real estate projects have begun to collapse as loans that were heavily relied on by large investors and planners were frozen. Foreign trade has been stunted by international restrictions responding to China’s aggressive behavior. The long term looks even worse as the birthrate plummets, which will shrink the middle class.
China also has to micromanage a strengthening coalition in the Pacific Ocean. Asian countries have been working together to check the encroachments of China. Japan is leading ASEAN in cooperative defensive strategies. The Philippines and Vietnam are discussing a defense plan that threatens to sever China’s maritime trade through the Malacca Strait.
U.S. troops are now training Taiwanese troops on its outlying islands. The U.S. is also using its regional hegemony to strengthen ties between Japan, its former colony South Korea, and its former enemy the Philippines.
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Unfortunately, the U.S. is deteriorating as the threat rises. Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan did a great job making our allies and enemies doubt our commitment to international security. The mental health of this near-geriatric world leader is so depleted that he confused the presidents of Egypt and Mexico. Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed him for reelection due to his predictability.
Biden cannot be president next term. If he is, and Aquilino’s warning that China wages war on Taiwan and, by proxy, the U.S. in 2027 is true, then thousands will suffer under the elderly president’s regime.
Parker Miller is a 2024 Washington Examiner winter fellow.