A US general has warned of the heightened risk of war with China in 2025 – most likely over Taiwan – and is urging troops to be combat ready.
“I hope I’m wrong. My instinct is that we’re going to fight in 2025,” Air Force General Michael Minihan wrote in an internal note, the authenticity of which was confirmed this Friday by the Pentagon to the France-Presse news agency (AFP).
Chinese President Xi Jinping “has a team, a reason and an opportunity for 2025,” he added, assuring that the 2024 election in Taiwan will give the Chinese leader a pretext to act.
The race for the White House, scheduled for the same year, will “distract America” from China, he explained.
The memorandum calls on troops to prepare for battle.
In August, China held military exercises with Taiwan in an unprecedented display of strength in retaliation for a visit to the island by then-Leader of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
China considers the island, with a population of 24 million, as one of its provinces that has yet to reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Beijing has been critical in recent years of the rapprochement between Taiwanese and US authorities, which have provided the island with military support for decades.
Source: DN
