Washington Is Escalating Military Tensions in the Asia-Pacific Region
Congressmen from the United States are provoking Beijing and making serious preparations for a military conflict with China over Taiwan.
Florida’s Republican Senator Mark Rubio introduced ‘The Deterring Chinese Preemptive Strikes Act’ to Congress in the first week of May to fortify American military bases in the Pacific against potential missile assaults from Beijing. The text of the document was published on May 11 on the website of the congressman, who, citing data from analysts, predicts that in anticipation of a potential military invasion of Taiwan, China will attempt to strike and neutralize American military facilities in the Asia-Pacific region.
As conceived by Rubio, the future law directs the US Department of Defense to strengthen its armed forces in the Indo-Pacific region to “help further deter a preemptive strike by China against the US military before invading Taiwan.” A detailed inventory and reinforcement of all shelter types for American military aircraft stationed in the first, second, and third island chains in the Indo-Pacific region will be required, according to a directive to the Pentagon.
To be fair, it should be acknowledged that American lawmakers have recently displayed provocative behavior that has consciously fueled the conflict around Taiwan and raised a level of military tension in the Asia-Pacific region.
As a consequence of this, after the then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in early August 2022, the situation in the Taiwan Strait significantly deteriorated. Beijing, which views Taiwan as one of its provinces, interpreted this action by US senators as evidence that Washington is in favor of Taiwan independence. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) retaliated the day after with extensive drills and missile shooting in six different locations of the island’s waters.
Then, in January of this year, Republican Mike McCaul, a Texas-based member of the US House of Representatives and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, declared that there was a “very high likelihood” that the United States and China would engage in battle over Taiwan. He also stated that if Beijing fails to secure bloodless rule over the island, the Chinese will consider launching a military assault. This public announcement came shortly after the scandalous revelation was leaked to the media on January 27 of this year made by US Air Force Four-Star General Mike Minihan, who warned his subordinates in a memo that the US would go to war with China in 2025 and instructed them to report on actions to prepare for war with China.
