Chinese President Tells Military To Prepare For War Amid Tensions Over Taiwan

Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command has said that the war in Ukraine is just a warm up and that the United States must be prepared for much more around the corner, because the big one is coming.

By Donald Standeford, SJ Founder/Publisher
November 11, 2022 12:00 am UTC
Modified: 2022-11-11 12:00 am

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday that China will be increasing the training of its military and "fully enhance training and preparation for war", as the nation's "security is increasingly unstable and uncertain", while visiting the joint operations command center of the Central Military Commission in Beijing, China.

The commander of the U.S. Strategic Command has said that the war in Ukraine is Just A Warm Up and that the United States "must be prepared for much more," around the corner, because "the big one is coming".

In July, the Chinese state-run news agency Global Times had reported that "Taiwan will be a place where the United States finally shows its 'true paper tiger face' and that they will put up a sturdy 'fight to the end' to thwart Pelosi's visit to Taiwan." Read Report Here

Now, China's state-run news agency Xinhua cited Xi himself as saying, "The entire military should devote all its energy to and carry out all its work for combat readiness, enhance the capability to fight and win."

The report went on to say, "Xi instructed the armed forces to thoroughly study, publicize and implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and take concrete actions to further modernize national defense and the military."

The report said that Xi "also instructed them to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, and successfully complete various tasks entrusted by the Party and the people".

Biden has repeatedly openly claimed that U.S. forces would defend the island of Taiwan was it invaded by China. Each time, however, it was later walked back by the White House which said that the Official Policy by Washington has "remained consistent across decades and administrations," and that Washington does "not support Taiwan independence".

Japan Also Preparing For Possible War

While China prepares its troops for war, Japan is reportedly doing the same. A Report by Bloomberg said that Japan is also "gearing up for war" with China and that the threat of Chinese aggression is causing officials to push the nation to "get ready for a fight".

As China now has hypersonic missile capability, Japan announced that it is planning to Remodel its own surface-to-air guided missiles so that they will be capable of intercepting hypersonic glide missiles being developed by both Russia and China as part of its "comprehensive air and missile defense" capability.

China Expanding Airbase Close To Guangdong

Satellite images captured on September 18th by Planet show that China has been expanding an airbase close to their Guandong Naval Base in southern China.

The additions include a second runway in addition to the one that was already there, taxiways that have been enlarged and widened, and additional parking spaces for aircraft that were under construction on the date the satellite photos were captured.

The location of airbase is in Suixi county, in the Guangdong province which is located about 20 miles northwest of the Zhanjiang naval base for the Chinese PLA South Fleet, according to a Report by the South China Morning Post.

Taiwan Prepares To Be Invaded

A Report by the Atlantic cited Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said that the threat of an invasion by China on the island is "real" and that "we need to get ourselves ready," adding that the threat of an invasion by China is "not hype".

On August 30th, 2022 the Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Nury Turkel said that if China successfully invades the island of Taiwan, the Taiwanese people may Suffer A Similar Fate as the Uyghurs in western China’s Xinjiang region.

For the past few years, China has been increasingly ratcheting up its incursions of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), with the incursions becoming more and more frequent, with an increasing number of Chinese aircraft and naval forces spotted around the island.

It is believed that in carrying out these incursions, China is not only testing the response times of the Taiwanese military, but also wearing them down and slowing down the time it takes for the Taiwanese military to respond to the incursions.

Each time China sends aircraft near the island and the Taiwanese military has to respond with their own aircraft it costs manpower, but also a great deal of money. A report by Reuters in October, 2020 cited Taiwan's defense minister and said that the country's military had spent nearly $900 million scrambling its air force against Chinese incursions that year.

Incursions in 2020 were far less frequent than they are now, in 2022 where they have happened Every Single Day (except for one day at the end of October) since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island on August 2nd, 2022 despite heavy protests by Beijing.

After Pelosi, there were other visits by ambassadors and lawmakers to Taiwan, further angering China. Then on August 2nd, 2022 the Biden administration announced a $1.1 billion Sale Of Arms to Taipei.

Taiwan Tensions Bring Serious Challenges To Microchip Industry

China has been increasingly aggressive about Controlling The Microchip Industry and emboldened in its stance towards Taiwan since the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan, and the lack of direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict by the United States.

Taiwan accounts for 92% of the production of the world's most advanced semiconductors below 10nm. An invasion of Taiwan by China would enable Beijing to completely dominate the global microchip and semiconductor industry.

A war against Taiwan would also cause a global shortage of microchips and semiconductors, which would cause the prices of electronic devices requiring microchips or semiconductors to skyrocket on a global scale.

For this reason, the Biden administration Announced in September that it was preparing to invest $50 billion in revitalizing domestic production of semiconductors in the United States.

Rising Tensions Hurting Taiwan's Microchip Industry, Brought Serious Challenges

On October 19th, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC reported that increasing tensions with China have brought 'more serious' challenges to the semiconductor industry.

At the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association's annual convention, the Chairman of TSMC Mark Liu stated, "The U.S.-China trade conflict and the escalation of cross-Strait tensions have brought more serious challenges to all industries, including the semiconductor industry."

The United States and China are Taiwan's largest customers for microchips, but as of late China has been "promoting its domestic semiconductor industry," which includes microchip design, manufacturing, and packaging, and the United States passed the CHIPS act, promoting its own domestic development and manufacturing of microchips.

Frank Huang, chairman of Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp was cited by Reuters as saying, "We do business on both sides of the Strait. So we can't listen to the U.S. and not do any business with mainland China. Then what would everyone eat? Our industry's position is to maintain our competitiveness."

Check the Asia Region on The Standeford Journal for all articles relating to China and Taiwan.