By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
In a little more than a month as head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo has shown himself to be a straight shooter, with most of the shots aimed at China. Now, Beijing is firing back at Paparo’s latest remarks.
Paparo told Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin that if China launches an attack on Taiwan, the US would unleash a strategy that involves thousands of drones – unmanned planes, ships and submarines.
“I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Paparo told the Post. “So that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”
China was not amused, and responded in the Global Times, an English-language newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party’s paper, the People’s Daily.
A naval expert and retired PLA Navy officer, Wang Yunfei, told the Global Times that the US strategy is “wishful thinking,” He said China can use its hypersonic anti-ship missiles to keep US aircraft carriers out of the region, and can jam the signals needed to control unmanned weapons.
Army Pioneers new classified, secure commercial computer network
And a research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhang Hua, told the paper he questions whether the US will be able to build so many drones.
For the US, there is no guarantee that if there is a war, it will be fought the way the Pentagon wants. Instead of an invasion, Chinese forces could blockade Taiwan, something they appeared to be practicing last month in exercises held just days after the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, who is seen as a champion of democracy. In an earlier interview, Paparo said those drills “looked like a rehearsal” for an invasion.
Both China and Taiwan have been bolstering their militaries in recent years, although Beijing’s efforts dwarf those of Taipei. Paparo told the Post that China’s military budget is probably three times as large as the government claims, which would make it about $700 billion a year (for fiscal 2025, the Pentagon budget is expected to be $833 billion).
Last month, an American congressional delegation told President Lai that long-promised weapons from the US are on their way. The $1.1 billion package includes a radar warning system and surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles.
Taiwan isn’t the only place feeling the pressure from China. The Chinese coast guard has been using water cannon and collision tactics to harass Philippine supply and patrol ships in the South China Sea. China claims 90 percent of that body of water for itself, ignoring the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The Philippines, meanwhile, is increasing its military ties with the US, and is allowing the Pentagon to expand its presence in the country.
Paparo told the Post, “The region has got two choices. The first is that they can submit, and as an end result give up some of their freedoms…or they can arm to the teeth.”
China, of course, sees things totally differently. The Global Times mocked the US position on Taiwan, calling it “ferocious in appearance but feeble in essence.”
The paper called the Taiwan question China’s internal affair, writing “…the US must know that it needs to accept China’s way of handling it. Actually that is its only option.”
