China setting up blockade, not invading: Retired Army General
(NewsNation) — Taiwan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a game plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island.
Joseph Wu, who offered no timetable for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued with China often breaching the unofficial median line through the Taiwan Strait.
“China has used the drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei.
“It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan. After the drills conclude, China may try to routinize its action in an attempt to wreck the long-term status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”
Retired US Army Maj. Gen. William Enyart, however, told NewsNation’s “Rush Hour” that an invasion of Taiwan by China will not happen at this point, citing several logistical obstacles for the communist regime.
“They haven’t done the logistical setup that’s necessary,” Enyart said. “They haven’t brought in the amphibious craft, they haven’t brought the armor forward, they haven’t brought the personnel forward that they would have to move across 100 miles of ocean to invade.”
Rather, he believes, China is setting up a blockade to starve Taiwan out.
“I think that’s far more likely, because there is far less international disapproval associated with blockading, although a blockade is technically an act of war,” Enyart said.
Reuters contributed to this story.