Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said during an interview that Americans should be concerned about the possibility of China invading Taiwan.
Brown made the comments during an interview Saturday in Simi Valley, California, at the Reagan National Defense Forum with "FOX News Sunday" anchor Shannon Bream.
"Seventy-three percent of people responded to the survey this year that they were somewhat worried about possibility of China actually invading Taiwan. You've said in the past you don't think it will be an actual, you know, physical operation to take Taiwan. It's logistically very difficult to do that. But there are other ways that China will pressure Taiwan. So how do you see that playing?" Bream said.
"Well, just think about what happened in Hong Kong. And the first thing I would say is we want to be, and we all should be, worried whether it's going to happen or not. And part of the reason why deterrence is so important, so that conflict does not occur," Brown responded.
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Brown said the U.S. has to pay attention to the pressure that China is putting on Taiwan, even if it's not in a military form.
"But if you look at what happened in Hong Kong and even some of the things that the PRC is doing today is, you know, putting pressure on Taiwan, putting pressure on countries in the Indo-Pacific, whether it be economically or somewhat militarily, that we've seen continued pressure to wear in this case Taiwan down or others down to their own gain," Brown said.
China is testing just how much restraint Taiwan has, as its military performs almost daily flights and naval vessel routes around Taiwan, sometimes getting uncomfortably close to the island.
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On Sunday morning local time in Taiwan, the country's Ministry of National Defense wrote in a post on X that 4 Chinese military aircraft and 6 naval vessels were located around Taiwan.
During the U.S.-China summit in San Francisco in November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying released a blunt warning about America's relations with Taiwan, calling it "the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations."
"The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’, stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable," Chunying wrote in a post on X.
