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US-China relations
China

Chinese attack on Taiwan not ‘imminent’ and predicting it unhelpful to Pentagon readiness: US general

  • Cross-strait conflict is not ‘inevitable’ and American goal is to avoid military flare-up, says Air Force’s chief of staff
  • Concern about Beijing’s plans for self-ruled island has intensified amid Chinese military’s modernisation

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General Charles Brown, the US Air Force’s chief of staff, speaking at a Brookings Institution event in Washington on Monday. Photo: Handout
Robert Delaneyin Washington
A senior US Air Force official on Monday said a military attack on Taiwan by mainland China was not “imminent” and that predictions about such a scenario playing out were a distraction to the Pentagon’s efforts to be prepared for conflict in the region.

Asked whether he agreed with recent predictions of a military flare-up in the Taiwan Strait, General Charles Brown, the Air Force’s chief of staff, replied: “I don’t see that conflict is imminent or inevitable.”

“The goal is to avoid it, and so not knowing when things might occur, my goal is to be ready today, tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade,” Brown said at a discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Speculation about when military conflict in the Taiwan Strait might break out “is not necessarily helpful”, he added.

“I’ve been disappointed by some of the comments that have been made [about conflict time frames] because it takes away from what we’re really trying to do, which is to make sure we’re going to be ready.”

Concern about Beijing’s plans for Taiwan, which it regards as a wayward province that must be reunited with the mainland, has intensified along with the People’s Liberation Army’s modernisation and larger presence in the East and South China seas in recent years.
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