China’s extensive military buildup is on a dangerous trajectory that threatens the peace and security of the region, the commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific said Tuesday.
Army Gen. Charles A. Flynn also said Chinese large-scale war games around Taiwan this week reflect that trend. The exercises are a major worry, he said.
Gen. Flynn also defended the recent deployment of U.S. long-range missiles to the Philippines, a move China has called a threat to its security.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has rapidly transformed its forces over the past 10 years with new and advanced weapons and is conducting war games, drills and exercises that demonstrate alarming new capabilities, he said.
“So, when I think back to the combinations and capabilities that [the PLA] had in 2014, I see a very, very dangerous trajectory,” Gen. Flynn said in remarks to the Center for New American Security.
In addition to the buildup, Chinese forces also have been violating the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of several nations in the region, he said.
But Beijing’s moves are “in many ways, [are] helping us,” the U.S. general argued, saying it has prompted regional allies and partners to seek closer security ties with Washington.
The PLA began a significant reorganization in 2014, followed by a rapid modernization program using training and exercises copied from the U.S. military, the four-star general said.
“I mean, they’re taking pages right out of our book and putting them in place to build a force, [anti-access, area denial] arsenal that they have created,” he said.
The PLA military exercises now are much more advanced than in the past and the military forces are reaching further outward from Chinese territory into places such as South Asia and Oceania, he said.
The buildup has been advanced incrementally over the past quarter-century and has been “insidious” in the use of nontraditional military means such as legal warfare (“lawfare”) and “irresponsible” actions toward other nations in the region, he said.
The 10-year-buildup presents a rising concern over whether Chinese President Xi Jinping will order military action against Taiwan, Gen. Flynn said.
“So, if that’s the trajectory they’ve been on from 2014 to 2024, if you can think out in time to from 2024 to 2034 and then you think about President Xi is 70, might be 71 at this particular point — he’s got to make a decision, in my view, in the next decade and so we have to slow this trajectory down,” he said.
Mr. Xi has ordered PLA forces to be prepared for military action against Taiwan in the next 10 years or less.
U.S. Army forces, which maintain close ties to the heavily ground force-oriented militaries in the region, can counter the Chinese by “gaining positional advantage” and organizing a mixture of advanced, battle-winning and tailored military capabilities, he said.
Gen. Flynn said his forces have made an important contribution to Indo-Pacific Command’s efforts to deter regional threats through creating what he called a “land-power network” — close links between the Army, the Marines, special operations forces and the large armies that exist in the region.
Other strategies call for increasing military readiness and improving interoperability with allied militaries, not only to counter threats from China but increasing new dangers from North Korea and Russia in the region, he said.
Asked about the stationing of the Army’s Typhon missile system to Philippines, Gen. Flynn said the midrange weapon was used in a recent exercise and Manila then asked that the missiles remain in the northern part of the country. The system features a land-based, ground-launched weapon that can fire SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles with ranges of between 150 miles and 1,550 miles. The longer-range missiles can strike targets throughout southern China.
Beijing and Manila have been engaged in a series of tense standoffs between Chinese Coast Guard vessels and Philippines resupply boats over disputed islands in the South China Sea.
The Typhon missile system “is there by the invitation and with the consent of the Philippine government,” Gen. Flynn said. “We brought it over as part of our normal exercises, and they and we are learning as a result of us training together, operating together, and being together.”
A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, Sr. Col. Zhang Xiaogang, last month denounced the missile deployment as “erroneous action” and called for the missiles to be removed.
China enjoys strong economic ties to many states in the region, but the challenge for the United States is to make allies and regional states close security partners, Gen. Flynn said.
On North Korea, Gen. Flynn said Pyongyang’s growing ties with the militaries of China and Russia pose new dangers.
North Korean troops now fighting with the Russians in Ukraine and North Korean weapons being used in Ukraine are providing Pyongyang’s military a vital real-world test for its weapons and technology.
“That kind of feedback from a real battlefield to North Korea to be able to make adjustments on their weapons, their ammunition, their capabilities and even their people, to me, is very concerning and something we need to pay close attention to,” Gen. Flynn said.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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