China ‘unlikely’ to try taking Taiwan in next two years: US general
- Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley says he sees no reason for ‘out of the blue’ attack on the self-ruled island
- Milley’s assessment is that Beijing currently does not have the capability or intent to seize the island in the immediate future
“I don’t see it happening right out of the blue, there’s no reason for it,” Milley told a congressional hearing, adding that an invasion aiming to seize an island as big as Taiwan, with its level of defence capability, would be “extraordinarily complicated and costly”.
Milley last week told Congress that Beijing had neither the capability nor intent to seize the self-ruled island in the immediate future. His message was in contrast with earlier warnings by US admirals who portrayed the threat as imminent.
Former Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Philip Davidson said in March that China could try to invade Taiwan “in the next six years”. His successor Admiral John Aquilino warned the problem was “much closer to us than most think”, without specifying when he expected the Chinese military to become capable of invading the island.
Speaking to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Milley said on Wednesday the admirals had indicated in their comments that China was accelerating its military capability toward being ready to invade and seize Taiwan around 2027, six years from now, and that he did not “dismiss that at all”.