TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The US would defeat China in a Taiwan Strait conflict now, but the advantage is slipping as China continues its military buildup, Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, said at the McCain Institute’s annual Sedona Forum in Arizona on Friday.
The US military currently enjoys superior undersea capabilities and powerful weapons to counter space assets, Paparo said, per the Financial Times. However, China is developing military assets—including warships—at a much faster pace than the US, he said.
“Our trajectory on... really every force element that is salient is a bad trajectory,” Paparo said. He noted that China constructs two submarines a year, while the US builds 1.4 in the same period. China also produces six military vessels annually, compared with just 1.8 in the US
In response to the lagging pace of American naval shipbuilding, Huntington Ingalls Industries and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries signed an MOU at a defense exhibition in Maryland last month. The agreement aims to accelerate ship production in support of both defense and commercial projects.
Paparo said the People’s Liberation Army is training for the “entire range of military operations” to seize Taiwan. Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) has ordered the PLA to be capable of launching an attack by 2027. “This is not a go-by date. It’s a be-ready-by date,” he said.
Whether and when China takes action depends on several factors, including its military readiness, Taiwan’s defensive strength, and “the capability, will, and probability of allied assistance to Taiwan,” Paparo said.
When asked whether Americans would support a military intervention to aid Taiwan, Paparo responded, “A lesson in history is that people are always saying America will never get in a fight, but it’s not the track record.”
His remarks come as a Taiwan legislative delegation tours the US to meet with lawmakers and officials on Taiwan Strait security and bilateral ties. Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), who is leading the delegation, noted Taiwan's defense budget is nearing 4% of GDP when including the Coast Guard as a military branch.
