With the United States still reeling from the pandemic and having recently undergone a change in administration, the Chinese Communist Party now sees a “window of opportunity” to accelerate its plans to expand its territory in the Asian region, according to a former senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy. “It’s a very dangerous time for the region as Beijing is seeking to advance their strategy and their timeline,” James Fanell, who previously served as the director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told The Epoch Times’ affiliate NTD in an April 9 interview. In recent weeks, the Chinese regime amassed more than 240 militia vessels on the disputed Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea, an area that lies inside the Philippines’ 200 mile (322 km) exclusive economic zone. The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest to Beijing and sent a naval task force to patrol the area. In the …