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The US nominee to helm US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, has warned that China could soon have the capability to use military exercises to conceal an invasion of Taiwan, Taiwan News reported.
On February 14, Paparo spoke at a conference organized by the Defense Innovation Unit in Silicon Valley to discuss ways in which the private sector can collaborate with the US military in leveraging emerging commercial technologies to strengthen America's defences. Paparo touched on the growing threat by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and ways that the US could use new technologies to deter Beijing. The US Commander further said that despite economic, demographic woes in China, and the corruption scandals within the PLA, Beijing's leadership is "undaunted in their ambitions." He added that these ambitions include the world, the West Pacific, the South China Sea, and "more acutely for Taiwan," Taiwan News reported. According to Paparo, within the past three years, the PLA has achieved "step-level changes" in its force levels and the "jointness" of those forces. He said that these developments, along with PLA rehearsals demonstrating joint capabilities and the heightened threshold of warnings, indicate that China will soon reach a point at which it will have sufficient forces to launch a "profound military operation" that can be operated "under a fig leaf of exercise." At the same time, Paparo said that the "erosion of strategic operational and tactical warning is real" and presents a challenge to the ability of the US and its allies to detect warning signs of a Chinese attack. He said that this could hinder the ability of the US military to be properly positioned to support allies and partners and affect its readiness to defend Taiwan if China should "decide to settle matters with the use of force." Paparo said that there have been important developments in terms of enhanced defence cooperation between the US and Japan, South Korea, AUKUS members, and the Philippines. He said that there have been new bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral agreements among US partners, demonstrating a "growing confluence of international will" in response to China's aggressive actions. On being asked what would be necessary to deter Chinese leader Xi Jinping from deciding to invade Taiwan, Paparo said that the US must make it clear that any attempt to do so would be unsuccessful and demonstrate the capability to impose "generational impacts." Paparo pointed out that the US submarine force is about a generation to half a generation ahead of China. Paparo recommended that China can be deterred from attacking Taiwan by deploying assets with an "unmanned autonomous capability" to maintain vigilance over the region and "deny the Taiwan Strait as an avenue of invasion," as reported by Taiwan News. He also called for a reassessment of "information superiority, air superiority, and maritime superiority." (ANI)
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