A senior U.S. naval commander has warned that Beijing could start a military conflict as soon as this year and that the Indo-pacific needs to be prepared to experience conflict in the near future.
Speaking at an event hosted on Oct. 20 by the Atlantic Council in Washington, Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of U.S. naval operations, said there was a chance of imminent war in the Asia-pacific.
“If I look at the trends from, let’s say, 2018 to now in how we talk about China, in the 2018 NDS [National Defense Strategy] we really talked about Great Power competition, and that was a focus. And now, based on what we’re seeing from an increasingly aggressive China and Russia … we have our eyes on preparing for a potential fight tonight, he said….