"#China’s armed forces are capable of blockading #Taiwan, a senior U.S. Navy official said, pointing to the size of the country’s navy, which is the world’s largest and growing at a rapid pace." wsj.com/articles/china…
“They have a very large navy, and if they want to bully and put ships around Taiwan, they very much can do that,” Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
"Adm. Thomas said he didn’t know if China would carry out an invasion or a blockade, but it was his job to be ready for whatever they do. He said he hoped China would resolve differences over the island peacefully.
If China were to mount a blockade, Adm. Thomas said the international community could step in."
“Clearly if they do something that’s non-kinetic, which, you know, a blockade is less kinetic,” he said...
... meaning it isn’t an all-out attack involving lethal force, “then that allows the international community to weigh in and to work together on how we’re going to solve that challenge.”
"Asked why the plane took a circuitous route, Adm. Thomas said the decision was made at “high levels” because officials weren’t sure how China was going to respond.
“There certainly was a lot of rhetoric by the PRC about, if she goes, there will be some consequences,” he said, referring to China by the acronym of its full name, the People’s Republic of China.
“You never quite know with the PRC if the rhetoric is real or if it’s just that—rhetoric—and just to prevent any miscalculation, there were some decisions made to give us a little bit more time and space to understand what their reaction might be.”
Adm. Thomas said the firing of missiles was irresponsible and that China had “moved the goal posts just a little bit more” by doing so.
“There’s a term in Mandarin—can shi—nibbling like a silkworm. They just kind of continue to push the boundaries, see what they can get away with.”
"Adm. Thomas said he sees China’s recent actions around Taiwan as an extension of the “might makes right” mentality he said the country has shown in the way it has militarized the South China Sea."
“They’ve completely militarized those islands,” he said. “They already have all the bunkers they need, they already have all the fuel storage capacity they need, the ability to house troops, they have the missiles, the radars, the sensors.”
"Adm. Thomas said China is turning out navy ships at an impressive rate, while the U.S. doesn’t have as many shipyards producing navy ships as it needs. China, for instance, is producing its Type 055 destroyers—a large and heavily armed surface ship, ...
... also known as the Renhai-class cruiser, that has become a symbol of China’s naval modernization—at a much greater rate than the U.S. is producing guided-missile destroyers, he said."
"But China has made progress on that front, Adm. Thomas said. Aircraft from China’s air force are flying across water, whereas only its navy undertook such flights four years ago, he said.
“They are more joint than they were a year ago, three years ago, five years ago,” he said.
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