An attack on Taiwan by the Chinese military would be a political and strategic mistake, Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said Wednesday.
“Most of Taiwan is a mountainous island. So it’s a very, very difficult military objective, a very difficult military operation to execute,” Milley said at a joint Pentagon press briefing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin following a meeting on the latest developments in Ukraine.
The top U.S. general had been asked if he was concerned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) might make an ill-advised or ill-informed attempt to take Taiwan by force now that he has consolidated his power over the Chinese Communist Party.
Milley said he believed President Xi would make decisions based on what he thinks is in China’s national interest.
“I think he evaluates things on cost, benefit and risk, and I think that he would conclude that an attack on Taiwan in the near future would be an excessive amount of risk, and it would end in a strategic debacle for the Chinese military,” he said.
Milley said the U.S. was watching the situation closely and that “one of the keys now is to make sure that Taiwan can defend itself, and there are a lot of lessons learned coming out of the Ukrainian war.”
The U.S. general noted that China’s military had not seen combat since fighting the Vietnamese in 1979, adding it would be a dangerous game to cross the Taiwan Strait and invade the island of Taiwan.
Milley said he believed it could be some time before the Chinese were capable of a military operation to take Taiwan.
“I think it would be unwise. It would be a political mistake, a geopolitical mistake, a strategic mistake similar to what the strategic mistake is that Putin has made in Ukraine,” Milley added.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel
