China is preparing its military for war over Taiwan, retired US army lieutenant general and former national security adviser, HR McMaster asserted as relations between China and Taiwan continue to become increasingly tense.
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While Taiwan considers itself independent of China, Beijing has claimed it as its own and views control of the island essential. HR McMaster said that he believes that China might be preparing for military action to take control of Taiwan during an talk on CBS News’ Face the Nation. The retired US army lieutenant general said that China’s president Xi Jinping has made his plans to control Taiwan many times.
“Xi Jinping has made it quite clear, in his statements, that he is going to make, from his perspective, China whole again by subsuming Taiwan,” HR McMaster said.
“And preparations are underway,” he added.
HR McMaster said, “China has become increasingly aggressive, not only from an economic and financial perspective and a wolf warrior diplomacy perspective, but physically, with its military”, adding, “And what’s really disturbing is, I think, Xi Jinping is preparing the Chinese people for war.”
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Pointing to Xi Jinping’s speeches, he said that they have become more hardline in the recent months which US must see as a threat of war, further saying, US and its allies need to “be careful not to mirror image” or “fall into the same traps” they did with Russia when Moscow launched an invasion in Ukraine.
Relations between China and Taiwan flared in August last year after US house speaker’s Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
