The United States must enhance its military to counter the rising threat from Beijing, which is building up its armed forces to prepare for a potential war with the U.S., Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has warned, The Hill reported.
Although he said a military conflict is not inevitable, Kendall told the Air and Space Forces Association Warfighter Symposium at National Harbor, Maryland on Monday that the U.S. must be ready for a “kind of war we have no modern experience with.”
He emphasized that “we’re all talking about the fact that the Air and Space Forces must change, or we could fail to prevent and might even lose a war.”
Kendall continued, “China has been reoptimizing its forces for great power competition and to prevail against the U.S. in the Western Pacific for over 20 years," and added that Beijing "has been building a military capability specifically designed to achieve their national goals and to do so if opposed by the United States,” The Hill reported.
He specified that China has created two new military branches: a force meant to counter aircraft carriers, airfields, and other critical assets, and a strategic support service that seeks to achieve information dominance in both space and cyber.
Kendall joins other Pentagon and U.S. military officials in warning of a potential war with China, possibly this decade, due in particular to tensions over Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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