CHINA strongman Xi Jinping issued a chilling warning to US President Joe Biden vowing to make Taiwan part of China, reports say.
At a summit ironically intended to ease tensions, the Chinese President is said to have refused to rule out taking the self-ruling island by force.
Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California, November 2023Alamy
Chinese troops have previously conducting exercises close to Taiwan
EPATaiwan Air Force pilots next to an AT-3 trainer aircraft at an airbase in December 2023[/caption]
Surrounded by dozens of officials at the meeting in San Francisco last monmth, a brazen Xi warned that Beijing plans to absorb Taiwan back into mainland China, although without a specific time frame.
While he said the country’s preference is to take democratic Taiwan peacefully – he did not rule out using military force, NBC reports.
It comes as the country’s forces have been carrying out ever more regular invasion rehearsals.
Chinese officials reportedly asked Biden to make a public statement after the meeting pledging US support for China’s plan to take Taiwan.
They also asked him to tell the world that America does not support Taiwanese independence, according to officials briefed on the meeting.
The White House rejected this request and Biden has made no such statement.
Xi apparently told Biden that American military predictions on China’s plan to take Taiwan in 2025, or 2027, are wrong as he has not yet decided when his plans will unfold.
It comes just months after China released bone-chilling propaganda footage appearing to show the country holding rehearsals for a full-scale invasion of Taiwan.
The eerie footage seemed to be showcasing China’s military power, shared by the People’s Liberation Army.
Troops could be seen parachuting in from warplanes and carrying out close-combat fights.
And it was accompanied by a disconcertingly upbeat song with lyrics such as “don’t be afraid” and “go over the city gate and the high wall”.
And as Xi chooses to issue his disturbing vow to America’s leader, the ever present fears of a war between China and the US lurk in the background.
Earlier this year comments from an ex-US Air Force commander revealed a conflict may be closer than we think.
The US military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in February, confirming the uneasy tensions bubbling between the two.
Mike Minihan, Chief of the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command said at the time in a leaked memo: “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.“
And Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at The Brookings Institution, said America is “not well prepared” for a war with China over Taiwan.
He even warned there could be a World War II scenario unfolding on the world’s stage, if it came to it.
He said: “The US is not well prepared, but the good news is that China is not prepared for conflict either.
“Notions of a US-China conflict have been tossed around as if it would be a harder version of the wars America has been fighting for the last 20 years.
“It would be much more akin to World War II in all likelihood.”
In April experts warned that if China tries to “strangle” Taiwan with a blockade rather than crossing the 100-mile Taiwan strait, it could leave America in a difficult position.
ReutersTaiwanese troops at a military base in November 2023[/caption]
WechatThe People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published a video of China’s army rehearsing for an invasion of Taiwan[/caption]
WechatThe eerie video featured troops and weapons[/caption]
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