China won’t be able to overpower Washington’s military in a potential war for around a decade, a former NATO commander has said.
US-China relations have sunk to staggering lows in recent years as the two superpowers face off over several key flashpoints.
Fears the bitter enemies’ clashes over Taiwan’s sovereignty and spying allegations could soon turn hot have soared over the last year.
But James Stavridis, NATO’s former supreme allied commander Europe, believes the US does not have anything to worry about for the time being.
In an interview on The Michael Medved show, he was asked whether Beijing’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea could spark a new war.
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He said there would be at least a 10-year “grace period” before anything serious kicked off.
Starvidis added: “Even though China is building a massive fleet, even though they’re acting aggressively, they’re not ready yet.
“If we ended up in a war with China, it wouldn’t just be the US and China. We have treaty allies who are sworn to come and be part of a military campaign like that[…]Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand.”
It comes as China makes repeated threats to reclaim Taiwan, an independently governed island, by force if necessary.
The US has vowed to defend Taiwan if China launches a military invasion.
According to Starvidis, the Chinese would be no match for the Americans if this happens sooner rather than later.
He said: “China, in my estimation, will not be ready to take on the US in a very mature way for about 10 years.
“So, I think we have a bit of a grace period here, where we can strengthen our military to preserve deterrence and also try to use diplomacy[…]all the other means we have to take tension out of the relationship.”
Earlier this week, China said it mobilised its military to track an American warship that crossed into China’s hotly contested Spratly Islands nearly 700 miles away from the Chinese coast.
The People’s Liberation Army said in a statement: “The US deliberately disrupted the situation in the South China Sea.”
It came after a US naval ship, crossed into the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea
Beijing said the moves “seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security [and] seriously undermined regional peace and stability.”
Taiwan started a process of democratization in the late 1980s, after years of rapid economic growth. Tsai Ing-wen, its current president, has attracted the ire of Beijing by asserting that the island is independent.
But the One China policy, which is still in place today, acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and Taiwan is not an independent or sovereign state.
Earlier this year, Congress approved a $300 million sale of equipment to Taipei to help maintain its tactical information system and strengthen its defences.
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