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A top American air force general has predicted that the US and China will likely go to war by 2025 amid heightening tensions over the Taiwan Strait.
The ominous warning was delivered Friday in a memo from Air Force General Mike Minihan, who oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft.
Sent to officers responsible for roughly 107,000 service members under Minihan’s command, the communication instructs soldiers to prepare for the conflict by firing ‘a clip’ at targets – and to ‘aim for the head.’
The message is the most dramatic yet from a military officer of the looming likelihood of a war over Taiwan, a crucial ‘choke point’ in the South China Sea that is of strategic interest to both Beijing and Washington.
The ominous warning was delivered Friday in a memo from Air Force General Mike Minihan, who oversees the service’s fleet of transport and refueling aircraft. The four-star general, responsible for roughly 50,000 soldiers, is seen at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland 2012
The internal memorandum – dated February 1 of this year – was first reported by NBC News, and contains several pointers for servicemen in case of the prospective conflict
‘I hope I am wrong,’ Minihan wrote in the concerning correspondence, which has been circulating on social media and has since been confirmed to be genuine by the Pentagon.
‘My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.’
The internal memorandum – dated February 1 of this year – was first reported by NBC News and has been seen by DailyMail.com.
It contains several pointers that servicemen and women under his command should take to ready themselves for the prospective conflict, which the 56-year-old four-star general said is increasingly likely due to a series of circumstances that will embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The internal memorandum – dated February 1 of this year – was first reported by NBC News and has been seen by DailyMail.com
Minihan wrote that since both Taiwan and the US will have presidential elections in 2024, both countries will be ‘distracted,’ giving Jinping an opportunity to move on the country.
Minihan wrote: ‘Xi secured his third term [as Communist party general secretary] and set [sic] his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason.’
Minihan said that the 2024 presidential elections in the US – which will likely see current President Joe Biden faceoff with an as-of-now-unknown GOP candidate – would create a ‘distracted America’ that would benefit Xi’s administration.
The memo warns that a conflict will likely surface due to a series of circumstances that will embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping, including upcoming elections in both US and Taiwan
Minihan said that the 2024 presidential elections in the US – which will likely see current President Joe Biden faceoff with an as-of-now-unknown GOP candidate – would create a ‘distracted America’ that would benefit Xi’s administration
‘Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025,’ he wrote.
The four-star general further declared that the US’s main goal should be to ‘deter’ a conflict with China, but proceeded to list several pointers, including ones titled ‘end state’ and ‘risk’, on how to ‘defeat’ the country.
To prepare, Minihan – who joined the Air Force as an officer in 1990 – directs airmen who are qualified to use a weapon to ‘fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most.’
‘Aim for the head,’ he specified.
The memo then urges the tens of thousands of troops under his command to prepare for war in other regards by reconsidering ‘their personal affairs’ and being more aggressive about their training.
Minihan wrote that both countries will be ‘distracted,’ giving Jinping an opportunity to move on the country. President Biden and Xi had their first in-person meeting in November at a leader’s summit in Indonesia
‘Run deliberately, not recklessly,’ wrote Minihan, who assumed his current post over the Air Force’s Mobility Command Unit in 2021. He added: ‘If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk.’
And as tensions between the two countries over the self-governing Island nation remain high, the veteran general said that he seeks to build ‘a fortified, ready, integrated, and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight’ – ‘and win’ in air and sea skirmishes before Taiwan can be taken.
The memo comes as tensions remain extremely high over Taiwan, a country born after China’s communist revolution – and one that Beijing has long since claimed sovereignty over as a part of the Chinese mainland.
Aligned with the West’s free-market values, the Democratic country has since managed to cultivate one of the globe’s strongest economies, spurred by its $115billion semiconductor industry.
However, despite insisting its independence from mainland China, the country has found itself increasingly at odds with its nemesis across the Taiwan Strait, due its status as the last, non communist-controlled bastion in the chain of islands cutting off China from the Pacific Ocean – and crucial lanes for maritime trade.
Meanwhile, China has continued to send processions of warplanes and battleships near Taiwan, in an apparent, and continued show of force amid the burgeoning conflict. On January 10, China’s People’s Liberation Army flew 57 warplanes and four ships towards Taiwan
The area also offer a point of entry into the country for US forces in case of a conflict, meaning if it were to be taken over by Chinese forces, Beijing would gain a strategic foothold over the US in its ongoing stalemate over the important strait.
Moreover, the general’s warning comes just one week before secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to become the first cabinet secretary from President Joe Biden’s administration to visit China, after Biden met Xi for the first time in Indonesia in November.
Meanwhile, China has continued to send processions of warplanes and battleships near Taiwan, in an apparent, and continued show of force amid the burgeoning conflict.
Earlier this month, China’s People’s Liberation Army flew 57 warplanes and four ships towards Taiwan, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement Monday morning.
A Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location (file photo)on January 9, 2023, one of several war planes and navy vessels towards Taiwan amid rising tensions between the US and China
Twenty-eight of those planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary that both sides had previously stood by.
China said the drills’ ‘primary target was to practice land-strikes and sea assaults,’ according to a statement from Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command.
Days earlier, the U.S. Navy sent a destroyer sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait in a show of force.
In a statement, the US military said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon carried out the transit.
‘Chung-Hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,’ the statement added.
It said the entire operation was performed in compliance with international laws.
Over the summer, Chinese military officials further fanned flames to incite a potential conflict by conducting large-scale exercises in Taiwanese air space – including firing missiles in response to then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Taipei, Taiwan’s capital.
Adding to the tension is the fact that Biden, since assuming office in 2020, has repeatedly said he would order a military intervention if China attacked Taiwan.
The assertions came as a surprise to some, as they conflicted with the US’ longstanding policy in regards to China and Taiwan’s ongoing cold war called ‘strategic ambiguity’ under which officials in Washington do not disclose any plans in regards to the two countries’ conflict.
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