Thread by @jseldin

"China military modernization... is really just kind of awesome" @DefenseIntel #China Mission Group Chief Doug Wade warns @INSAlliance

"It's the totality of how the pull [all the modernization efforts] together that's the most impressive aspect"

Any move by #China on #Taiwan would be preceded by a range of activities, including #cyber activity, blockades, more violations of Taiwanese airspace & military measures short of putting troops on the ground, per @DefenseIntel's Wade

#China's Xi Jinping does not prefer to use force for unification w/#Taiwan - "China doesn't want to start a fight" per @DefenseIntel's Wade

But he cautions, "They haven't ruled it out"

Ongoing concerns abt #China's development of #A2AD "ability to push the #UnitedStates & its allies away from the fight - those things worry me a lot" per @DefenseIntel's Wade

"These have been under development for many many years"

"#China has a really robust space program. It's probably second only to the #UnitedStates...& counterspace capabilities" per @DefenseIntel's Wade

Those capabilities "worry us a lot"

#Space - "#China wants to be able to dominate that domain" & sees space as a possible vulnerability for the US, per @DefenseIntel's Wade

#China-US headed for an "increasingly confrontational period" per @DefenseIntel's Wade

#Beijing "probably sees [US] as keeping #China from its rightful place as a world leader"

#China "investing heavily" in #artificialintelligence & #machinelearning, per @DefenseIntel's Wade

Says concern is how #Beijing leverages AI & ML to parse through big data "to ensure that they have surveillance coverage of citizens" in China, elsewhere

"#China has its own interests in the #Russia-#Ukraine fight" per @DefenseIntel's Wade

"They're walking a fine balance" he says, noting #Beijing doesn't want to see #Moscow fail but that it also doesn't want to be seen as too close to Russia