US-China relations: Pentagon changes could create fresh uncertainty on military issues, observers say
- Three senior officials from the US defence department tendered their resignations after Pentagon boss Mark Esper was sacked by outgoing President Donald Trump
- People’s Liberation Army source says Beijing is concerned Taiwan might try to take advantage of the disruption in the Pentagon
The former US undersecretary of defence for policy James Anderson, undersecretary of defence for intelligence Joseph Kernan and chief of staff to the secretary of defence Jen Stewart all resigned on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the Pentagon the same day.
The White House said Anthony Tata, a retired brigadier general whose nomination for a top Pentagon job was abruptly cancelled in July, would replace Anderson in the defence department, the statement said.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the former acting assistant secretary of defence for special operations and low-intensity conflict, would replace Kernan, while Kash Patel, a former member of the National Security Council staff, would replace Stewart, it said.
He was nominated by Trump for the position of undersecretary of defence for policy earlier this year, but the confirmation hearing was cancelled at the last minute. Since August, he has been serving as acting deputy undersecretary of defence for policy.
The island’s navy said on Monday that US Marines had begun a four-week training operation to help boost Taiwanese troops’ combat readiness. The PLA described the exercise as a “provocative move that challenged China’s bottom line”.
“The Tsai administration needs to show the Taiwanese public that Taipei hopes the legacy left by Trump and the current US-Taiwan friendship and political trust can be carried on to the next US president,” Lu said.
Trump makes ‘unprecedented’ moves to block transition, say former officials
Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said it was likely that the US would face a “democratic constitutional crisis” during the transition from Trump to Biden, but its comprehensive system of checks and balances would prevent a military crisis from happening.
“Pentagon officials may not have time to deal with military to military exchanges between the US and China during the two-month transition, and some diplomatic and defence issues might be postponed,” Song said.
“But maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region will remain important.”
Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, agreed, saying the command and control structure of the US defence establishment did not allow command leaders to make autocratic decisions.
“In the absence of a defence secretary, for whatever duration, commanders are still required to adhere to the guidelines on peacetime deployments,” he said.
