China’s enemies will “have their heads cracked and bleeding” in any future conflict, the communist regime’s chief vowed during a speech marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.
“We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said, according to the English text of his speech. “Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
Xi ad-libbed the violent imagery, according to the South China Morning Post, which translated the lines as delivered in Chinese. And, in the spoken and written version, Xi paired that truculent rhetoric with a pledge to gain control of Taiwan, the last refuge of the government overthrown when the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949 and a strategic chokepoint for China and U.S. allies in the region.
“We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward ‘Taiwan independence’ and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation,” Xi said. “No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
US AND JAPAN WARN CHINA NOT TO ATTACK TAIWAN
Chinese officials have claimed sovereignty over Taiwan for decades but never ruled the island, which has benefited from U.S. support. The United States severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979 and moved the U.S. Embassy to China from Taipei to Beijing, but American presidents in both parties have provided weaponry to help Taiwan deter a prospective invasion from the mainland.
Yet China’s growing military power has stoked fear among U.S. allies that Beijing might attempt to take Taiwan by force.
“Maybe 15 years ago, Chinese PLA, if something happens between the United States, the armed forces, I think the U.S. forces can easily cover their powers,” Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama told the Hudson Institute this week. “But right now, Chinese PLA has the big aircraft carrier, and they are creating their own new battleships. They have, of course, the nuclear capabilities and stand up very strong leadership by Mr. Xi Jinping … we have to wake up, and we have to prepare the strange activity around the Taiwan.”
Japanese officials regard Taiwan as a vital theater for their own security because of the island’s proximity not only to disputed islands between Japan and China, but also to Okinawa, the Japanese island to the north of Taiwan that houses approximately 30,000 U.S. troops.
“It is really close to Taiwan island and Okinawa island,” Nakayama said. “It’s kind of like nose and eyes, this close. So, please be careful, and I really want the United States have to be more stronger, stronger, and stronger.”
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U.S. and Japanese officials have begun to plan together what they would do if China were to invade Taiwan. “As a crisis grows and Japan is potentially drawn in as a participant, the U.S. will need to understand how Japan could support or enable U.S. operations,” retired Adm. Mark Montgomery told the Financial Times.
