The top US commander in the Pacific said on Monday that Beijing was on a “dangerous course” and its operations around Taiwan were not mere exercises, but “rehearsals”.
“We face a profoundly consequential time in the Indo-Pacific. China is on a dangerous course,” said Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, in a special address to an AI expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project think tank.
“Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan are not just exercises. They are rehearsals,” he continued, without explicitly referencing a potential takeover of Taiwan.
Beijing regards the self-ruled island as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force and is committed to arming it.
Without naming specific countries, Paparo said on Monday that China’s aggression was compounded by “a growing transactional symbiosis among an axis of autocracies,” evidenced by “technology transfers and coordinated military activities”.
