Xi Jinping's potential 2027 transition poses threat to Taiwan: Ex Indo-Pacific commander

Former Indo-Pacific commander and retired four-star admiral in the United States Navy Adm. Phil Davidson on Sunday warned that the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s potential transition in 2027 might prove to be a "potential threat" to Taiwan. The former US armed forces service member had earlier “sent shockwaves globally” as he predicted a specific timeline on a possible Taiwan eventuality during his testimony to Congress in March 2021. 

The then admiral leading US Indo-Pacific Command said that China could attempt to take control of Taiwan by the end of the decade, approximately within the ‘next six years’, as he stressed that the United States needed to “rethink” Taiwan’s strategic ambiguity in the Western Pacific. He had stressed, that the US and allies must unite in the Indo pacific waters with defence capabilities so strong that when China assumes the timeline of its access into Taiwan, it ponders, “We don’t want to mess with that [US] capability, that capability and what I know to be the will.” 

China may assume 'global leadership role'

When asked by the US Senate Armed Services Committee in March to elaborate on the possible conflict in Taiwan Strait, the United States Navy admiral responded with dire warnings that Beijing might assume the global leadership role, and Taiwan “is clearly one of their ambitions. And I think the threat will manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years," Adm. Philip Davidson was quoted saying. 

Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, further in his testimony had told the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that China will “overtake the United States' hegemony in global affairs, and assume a world leadership role by 2050.”

"I worry that they're [China] accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the rules-based international order," US Indo-Pacific Command head Navy Adm. Phil Davidson said, according to the agencies. "They've long said that they want to do that by 2050. I’m worried about them moving that target closer,” he stressed. 

In an interview with Nikkei Asia on Tuesday, US admiral formerly leading US Indo-Pacific Command once again echoed his warnings about China, as he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping's leadership tenure is a major criterion for the timeline of Taiwan eventuality. Davidson told the Japanese publication that Jinping is expected to remain in power for the next quinquennial national congress of the Communist Party in the autumn of 2022. But afterward, when there would be a transition in 2027, nearly five years later, Beijing might invade Taiwan.  

"What it means, explicitly, is that the changes in the [People's Liberation Army]'s capabilities, with their missile and cyber forces, and their ability to train, advance their joint interoperability and their combat support logistics, all those trend lines indicate to me that within the next six years they will have the capability and the capacity to forcibly reunify with Taiwan, should they choose force to do it,” Adm. Phil Davidson told reporters Mikio Sugeno and Tsuyoshi Nagasawa. 

China's PLA 'closing gaps' with US military

Davidson warned that China has been pursuing an all-of-party approach to coerce the international community to attain a geopolitical edge. He also commented on the PLA's capability as “closing gaps” with the US military as well as Japanese forces.  "They are closing that gap with training, by establishing joint command and control structures, and by working the combat support logistics. They are also advancing their capability sets. That's principal air, sea, cyberspaces, rocket forces, space forces. They did take some risk in their land forces in order to find the funds to advance those capabilities, and they are investing heavily there," said Davidson. He stated that the United States needs a more expeditionary posture throughout the Indo-Pacific region to dissuade “PLA adventurism.”   

IMAGE: AP