TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The top U.S. general secretly called his Chinese counterpart before and after last year’s U.S. presidential election to voice his concerns that former President Donald Trump would spark a war with China to hold on to power.

U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called General Li Zuocheng (李作成) of the PLA on Oct. 30, 2020 — just four days before the election — and again on Jan. 8, a mere two days after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday (Sept. 14).

In the calls, Milley sought to assure Li the U.S. was stable and not going to attack China and that if there were to be an attack, he would alert Li beforehand.

Trump, in response, cast doubt on the story, saying it was "fabricated." He said that if the calls took place, Milley should be tried for treason.

"For the record, I never even thought of attacking China," Trump said. Milley's office refused to comment in response.

Trump picked Milley for the top military post in 2018 but began criticizing him, along with other appointees and former staffers, after he lost the presidential election to Biden in November 2020.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Marco Rubio has called on President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to immediately fire Milley, according to the report.

"I do not need to tell you of the dangers posed by senior military officers leaking classified information on U.S. military operations, but I will underscore that such subversion undermines the President’s ability to negotiate and leverage one of this nation’s instruments of national power in his interactions with foreign nations," Rubio wrote in a letter to Biden.