As the Trump Administration Blunders Its Alliances and Military Preparedness, China Prepares for War

 

As the Trump Administration Blunders Its Alliances and Military Preparedness, China Prepares for War

As the Trump administration has prioritized purging non-white heroes and cultural references from our military (websites, camp and fort names, historical exhibits, etc.) our ex-Fox talk show host and former Marine major – aka our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, whose very limited leadership past is plagued with failure and alcohol – has been unable to present the details of his military budget to Congress. Hegseth is instead obsessed instead with his “anti-woke” crusade, eliminating women from combat and leadership positions in our military and weeding out flag and other senior experienced combat officers from the ranks because they served under a Democratic president or he believes they may have leaked matters to the press.

His own track record of security missteps – like using a below-grade civilian platform to include purportedly sensitive briefings, including confidential materials and one where a journalist was inadvertently included – is an unforgiveable list. Morale among our senior officers has crashed and burned as Mr Macho, Hegseth, who prefers showmanship with enlisted soldiers in training… by participating in the muscular show. Stating and restating the Trumpian line that the recent B2 bombing in Iran had “obliterated” that nation’s nuclear enrichment program – as Israeli intelligence quickly proved was hardly the case – was clear evidence that our military, with lots of truly passed- over qualified officers, was being led by the most unqualified Defense/War Secretary in American history.

Our military has enough issues without the absence of real leadership. We have built our preparedness for combat against large comparable armies, only recently shifting some focus to existing in world of small nation/terrorist groups successful application of asynchronous warfare… where inexpensive drones and hit-and-run tactics have been successful against American forces. We have seven active fleets (built around large aircraft carriers) deployed across the planet, and while we currently have a quality advantage against China, that nemesis nation and our largest trading partner, has the largest navy on earth… updating and modernizing every day. They have taken to patrolling international waters, sometimes with Russian naval vessels, claiming many of these sea lanes as their own. Chinese naval forces and their significant land and air forces are focused mostly in their Asian sphere of influence. We are spread thin with global deployment.

It appears that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his Peoples’ Liberation Army to be prepared for a full-on invasion and occupation of the Republic of China (that small island nation we call Taiwan) by 2027. Without relevant historical precedent, has claimed that Taiwan has been and always will be a Chinese territory, and that Beijing is its only legitimate political government. PLA naval and air patrols have challenged US Navy ships and aircraft, as the United States refuses to recognize China territorial and sea claim, vowing to protect Taiwan from invasion. But with the Trump/Hegseth reconfigured US military, Trump’s on-again/off-again taunting of NATO and other military “allies,” and his downright effort to use tariffs to bully our once-best allies into submission, there is every reason to believe that the United States, without NATO support, will have little help in defending Taiwan… or any of our other regional allies (e.g., South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, etc.) against Chinese aggression.

Aside from deploying more traditional “large force” weapon systems, modernizing the PLA with alarming speed, China is now building a unique large-scale invasion fleet, very much tailored to an assault on Taiwan. Take a good look at the above images: one showing how the entire invasion system would work, and the others showing the actual finished products, now being mass-produced in China’s Guangzhou Shipyards by the CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering Company (COMEC). What you see are a new category of high-capacity (troops, tanks, etc.) seagoing barges, which link up into a single file landing structure that rapidly become an anchored port and a series of mobile bridges, all designed to support a large-scale amphibious assault, obviously targeting Taiwan.

“The barges, dubbed ‘Shuiqiao’—Mandarin for ‘water bridge’—barges, are notable for their jack-up legs and bridges that extend nearly 400 feet. These features allow multiple barges to be connected, forming a single long span, as seen in images and video shared by military enthusiasts on Chinese social media… A Shuiqiao barge functions as a temporary pontoon. Tanks and other armored vehicles ferried to the coast by China's roll-on/roll-off ships could drive over the bridge and disembark farther inland, bypassing heavily defended beaches…

“‘It reflects a deliberate effort to simulate Taiwan's northeast coastline, particularly areas like Yilan County and New Taipei City, where rugged, less-defended beaches could offer the PLA an asymmetric opening,’ Bryce Barros, associate fellow with GLOBSEC think tank, told Newsweek... ‘This suggests the PLA may be preparing to rapidly disembark vehicles, troops, and supplies near the capital [Taipei] if a beachhead can be secured,’ he added… The barges, however, would be highly vulnerable without established air and sea superiority and could still face threats from Taiwanese drones and portable missile launchers like the Javelin, Barros said, pointing to Ukraine's defense against invading Russian forces as an example.” Newsweek, August 1st.

But as China tightens its military relationship with Russia, now quite experienced in defending and attacking using drones based on its Ukraine experience, and North Korea, having refined its drone manufacturing technology as it has assisted Russia in that effort against Kyiv, you can bet that they will be well-prepared to counter and deploy drones if and when they actually invade Taiwan. It is well-recognized that Xi believes the United States in unraveling under the whimsical leadership of Trump and his clown car cabinet… and soon may well be so isolated and dysfunctional that the US would be unable to defend Taiwan against anything. Unfortunately, he may be right.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there is a price to pay, beyond the loss of democracy, under a conspiracy-theory-spouting autocrat who is thoroughly unprepared to lead the United States in a time of crisis.