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Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Taiwan Readies Soldiers, Civilians for Largest China Invasion Drills
Taiwan began preparations this week for its annual Han Kuang military exercise in response to what its government describes as escalating military pressure from China. The war games-scheduled to last 10 days and nine nights from July 9-are to be the largest ever across Taiwan proper and its outlying islands, officials said. More than 22,000 reservists are due to be mobilized and the exercise is scheduled to run concurrently with island-wide civil defense drills. The Han Kuang exercise will be held against the backdrop of an increased risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait, a flash point that could drag the United States and China into a major war over Taiwan's future. China claims Taiwan as its own despite Taipei's objections. The United States does not recognize Taiwan's statehood but has political and economic stakes in a peaceful resolution to the decades-long dispute, and is obliged by U.S. law to help Taipei arm itself against a possible attack. The scale and scope of this year's drills reflect the island's growing apprehension, but also its desire to apply lessons learned from recent conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, for example, about asymmetric weapons systems and territorial defense. Taiwan's Defense Ministry is calling up an additional 7,000 reservists to join this year's Han Kuang exercise, said Taipei defense chief Wellington Koo. One of the objectives is to assess how long it would take to ensure reservists are combat ready in wartime, Koo said. Taiwan's armed forces have an active-duty strength of just over 150,000, compared with China's standing army of over 2 million soldiers. This year, days of live-fire training across Taiwan's archipelagic territory will run twice as long as in previous annual drills, according to plans, covering so-called "gray zone" activity that falls short of conflict, anti-landing joint operations as well as a protracted defense of the island's vulnerable sites. The Taiwan army is expected to stage another test of its newly acquired HIMARS rocket launchers alongside indigenous anti-air, anti-ship and ground-attack missiles. For the first time, a convenience store chain will participate in parallel civil defense drills to distribute humanitarian supplies. Other urban training protocols include air-raid guidance and daytime evacuation rehearsals. The 41st Han Kuang exercise will take place amid heightened political animosity across the strait. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has given four of 10 planned speeches through which he hopes to gird Taiwanese society for mounting Chinese pressure to yield to Beijing's demands. The Chinese government's Taiwan Affairs Office responded this week by calling Lai a "troublemaker" who was "stirring up confrontation across the Taiwan Strait." Ely Ratner, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs and now a principal at the Marathon Initiative think tank, told Taiwan's Central News Agency: "Taiwan is on the right track to contribute to deterrence and should continue apace with heightened urgency and resources." Chen Binhua, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson, said in an press release: "The two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same China…We hope that the vast majority of Taiwan compatriots will resolutely oppose 'Taiwan independence' separatist acts and jointly maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait for the sake of national righteousness and their own well-being." The 41st annual Han Kuang exercise is scheduled from July 9-18. In late July and August, around a quarter of Taiwan's sitting lawmakers-including half of those representing Taiwan's main opposite Kuomintang party-face recall votes, in an unprecedented campaign that could shake up the island's political landscape for years before the next general election in January 2028. Related Articles China's Disappearing Generals Put Questions Over Xi's GripUS Ally Detects Chinese Military Near Coast: PhotosUS Military Issues Update on China's Rocket Force ThreatChina's Rival Receives Anti-Ship Boost From US 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Washington Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
America is overextended. After Iran, here's a better way forward.
A. Wess Mitchell is a principal at the Marathon Initiative and served as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs from 2017 to 2019. The 'simultaneity problem,' as it's known in military circles, has been the most serious grand strategic challenge facing the United States for some time now. The past two National Defense Strategies made clear that the U.S. is prepared to militarily confront only one major adversary, and that it should be China. And to do that, it needs to find ways of reducing U.S. commitments in Europe and the Middle East, ideally without producing intolerable risks in those theaters.
Washington Post
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Europeans should heed Vance's criticisms and reform
A. Wess Mitchell is a principal at the Marathon Initiative and served as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs from 2017 to 2019. Vice President JD Vance's criticisms of European allies have sparked the biggest collective psychotherapy session in the history of the transatlantic alliance. His landmark Feb. 14 speech at the Munich Security Conference may have drawn the most attention, but his arguments since have been persistent — and obviously heartfelt.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Elbridge Colby clears hurdle, moves to final vote to become Pentagon's top policy strategist
The Senate voted Monday to invoke cloture on Elbridge Colby's nomination, moving the national security strategist one step closer to confirmation as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon's No. 3 post. The procedural vote, which limits debate and tees up a final confirmation vote, passed by a margin of 53 to 49. Colby's nomination advanced out of the Armed Services Committee last month, overcoming skepticism from hawkish Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a closed-door vote. Three Democrats broke with their party and voted in favor of Colby: Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Jack Reed, R.I., the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Colby, a co-founder of the Marathon Initiative and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development under the Trump administration, is best known for his role in authoring the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which reoriented long-term military strategy toward a great power competition with China. He has long argued the U.S. military needs to limit its resources in the Middle East in a pivot to the Indo-Pacific region. Colby has scored staunch backing from a number of figures in Trump world, increasing the pressure on GOP skeptics to get on board with his nomination. Read On The Fox News App Vance Visits Capitol Hill To Urge Senators To Confirm Elbridge Colby For Pentagon No. 3 Post Vice President J.D. Vance paid a visit to Capitol Hill last month to offer support for his "friend" Colby. "In so many ways, Bridge predicted what we would be talking about four years down the road, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. He saw around corners that very few other people were seeing around," Vance said at the time. "If you look at his long career in defense policy, he has said things that, you know, frankly, alienated Democrats and Republicans. He's also said things that I think both Democrats and Republicans would agree with." During the hearing, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., questioned Colby on his previously stated position, "America has a strong interest in defending Taiwan, but Americans can survive without it." "Your views on Taiwan's importance to the United States seems to have softened considerably," Wicker told Colby. Colby disputed that point, arguing he had been sounding the alarm that the U.S.' "military balance has declined" in relation to China. Disputed Dod Nominee Is 'Best Person' To Implement Trump And Hegseth Agenda, Key Conservative Group Says "What I have been trying to shoot a signal flare over is that it is vital for us to focus and enable our own forces for an effective and reasonable defense of Taiwan and for the Taiwanese, as well as the Japanese, to do more," said Colby. When pressed by Cotton during the hearing, Colby said he believes Iran to be an "existential" threat to the U.S. "Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran – especially, Senator, given that … we know they've worked on ICBM-range capabilities and other capabilities that would pose an existential danger to the United States," Colby said. He promised to provide "credible good military options" to the president if diplomacy with Iran fails. It was a different tune than he'd sung in years past. "The only thing worse than the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons would be consequences of using force to try to stop them," Colby had said in 2012. "I would say a lot of what I was arguing against at the time, these conversations 15 years ago, a lot of the opponents I felt had a casual or in some cases even flippant attitude towards the employment of military force," Colby said. "That's a lot of what I was arguing against. Was my wording always appropriate, was my precise framing always appropriate? No."Original article source: Elbridge Colby clears hurdle, moves to final vote to become Pentagon's top policy strategist
