Communist China is building the infrastructure and equipment needed for an amphibious invasion of Taiwan while at the same time expanding its global reach. We can’t let the Ukrainian situation blind us to their plans.

FNC: “The U.S. needs to start thinking more globally if it hopes to limit China’s ambitions as President Xi Jinping sets a timeline that would see his military capable of invading Taiwan by 2027, experts told Fox News Digital.

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U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley this week highlighted comments from Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he laid out a timeline to achieve the capability — not intent — to invade Taiwan by 2027. The comments first surfaced in a speech Xi gave to the People’s Liberation Army in 2021, during which he challenged his army to accelerate its modernization.

Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby on Friday addressed the 2027 timeline, painting a broad-strokes picture in which China needed to improve its offensive, power projection, access denial and other capabilities.”

.@LindseyGrahamSC: “What happens in Ukraine affects what China will do to Taiwan…if we can stop Putin in Ukraine, the world is a much safer place…the outcome of Ukraine matters to America.” pic.twitter.com/fIOliq6E1A

— Martha MacCallum (@marthamaccallum) May 10, 2022

“They’re trying to accumulate standoff capabilities to prevent other militaries, including the United States, from physical access to whatever territorial claims they might make,” Kirby said. “So it’s a combination of these kinds of capabilities that I think we’re watching both offensive and access denial capabilities.

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“One is to have a really strong amphibious capability,” Anderson told press. “They need more amphibious platforms — large amphibious ships — and they’re building those … having these large amphibious warships strengthens their capacity to invade the island or rather increases the capability of success.

“That involves missiles and mines and aircraft to basically prevent U.S. warships from getting close to the island of Taiwan and preventing them from assisting in Taiwan’s defense for preventing them in any type of resupply efforts,” Anderson added.

“It’s in that context that PRC sea denial capabilities become a really important variable, and that is to say now to what extent could the PRC anticipate being able to hold off efforts by the United States Navy and other partners efforts to assist Taiwan,” Anderson explained.

“I think the PRC roughly has that capability to forcibly retake the island sooner than 2027, depending on certain scenarios,” he added. “For example, if the United States is seriously distracted by another conflict in the world … it would be less capable and less likely to assist Taiwan.”

Matt McInnis from the Institute for the Study of War also opined, “You hear some of this in recent comments from U.S. military leaders about how to think about China and Russia as an interrelated problem,” McInnis said. “The question of how do you factor in the Middle East or South Asia or other key places … certainly from a resource perspective, the U.S. has made some pretty significant choices.”

“China is expanding its ability to operate,” McInnis said. “And part of that is because they understand that any potential conflict with the United States is going to go on for a while … it’s going to be important to disrupt U.S. capabilities to supply a fight as well as allies in Europe and potentially India and other places too.”

This piece was written by David Kamioner on May 10, 2022. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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