China Escalates Military Exercises, US Army Discusses “partial conscription”, Biden still promising to protect Island State

Leave a CommentChina Escalates Military Exercises, US Army Discusses “partial conscription”, Biden still promising to protect Island StateNational Security

China sent more than 100 fighter jets and nine navy ships into the Taiwan Strait today, marking the largest single-day incursion in three years as Beijing escalates its threats against the island democracy.

Beijing, which views self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has escalated its harassment by stepping up military and political pressure on the democratically-governed island in a bid to assert its sovereignty claims.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 103 Chinese military aircraft and nine navy vessels were detected near Taiwan as of 6 a.m. local time Monday. Forty of the aircraft had entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by crossing the median line, an unofficial sea border between Taiwan and China that helped maintain stability for years in the 110-mile-wide strait.

Why does this concern us?

Joe Biden is the first president in decades to explicitly threaten that the US would go to war against China if it invaded Taiwan. He has said it repeatedly.

He believes that China is not equipped with the means of attacking Taiwan because of its current economic woes. However, a Taiwanese official does not agree, citing that China is bolstering its air power along its coast facing Taiwan.

We don’t have the resources to go to war. We are being drained by the phoney war in Ukraine to such an extent that the military is complaining that it doesn’t have sufficient resources to defend America. It is also experiencing an unsustainably low recruitment rate.

The Army War College’s “Lessons from Ukraine” document paint a horrifying picture. There is scant hope of us responding emphatically to a Chinese attempt to take Taiwan. As the document implies, the US is not remotely capable of “large-scale combat operations”.

We need to rebuild our military to defend us. Pax Americana needs to slow its roll while we take stock and rebuild. And maybe stop losing stealth fighter planes.