In 2025, the US will fight against China, a US general warns his forces. They should prepare for possible skirmishes – and draw up their wills.
Michael Minihan is a general in the United States Air Force. He heads the air mobility command, which is responsible for the transport of goods and the aerial refueling of aircraft, among other things. On Friday, Minihan sent a message to the top level of his command, in which he urgently warned against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and an associated outbreak of war involving the United States.
“I hope I’m wrong, but my gut tells me we’re going to fight in 2025,” Minihan said in the statement, first released by US television network NBC News. Its officers should explicitly prepare for the possibility of war in the coming months. To do this, they should update their emergency information, make their wills, take calculated risks in training, and prepare specifically for killing people: “Shoot at a target at close range and know that it is all about lethality. Aim the head,” writes the Air Force General.
Minihan also gives an outlook on what high-tech weapons the US army could use in a possible war against China: swarms of combat drones. He instructs the crews of the KC-135 tanker aircraft to be prepared to drop up to “100 commercially available target drones from a single aircraft”.
China’s English-language state medium “Global Times” reacted with irritation to the US general’s “war hype”. Chinese experts have classified Minihan’s appeal to his troops as “daring and provocative” – the step will therefore further increase tensions between the two world powers and sow strategic mistrust at a time when diplomatic relations are already strained. At the same time, however, China also seems to be creating facts.
Xi Jinping has convened a war council
General Minihan bases his warning on several factors. China’s ruler Xi Jinping began his third term in October 2022 and immediately set up a war council. In addition, with presidential elections taking place in Taiwan in 2024, China considers the island a breakaway province and does not recognize its independence. The United States will also elect a new President next year. Minihan expects the election to slow decision-making in Washington.
However, the US Department of Defense objected in the form of a message to Minihan’s warning. The general’s opinion is “not representative of the ministry’s view of China.” Nevertheless, other US officials also assume that a conflict with China is inevitable – for example the CIA or Philip Davidson, the ex-commander of the US fleet in the Indo-Pacific. Davidson expects a military conflict between the USA and China by 2027 at the latest.
In September 2022, US President Biden promised the people of Taiwan that in the event of a Chinese attack, American soldiers would also fight against the People’s Liberation Army.
