by James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer
The U.S. faces growing threats from extremists, global unrest, and China's aggression, with Beijing's militarization demanding urgent action to protect security and allies.
As the terror attack in New Orleans indicates, there is a surfeit of threats that the U.S. confronts within its borders and abroad. It demonstrates that Islamic violent extremists have the ability to launch an attack within this country. In all likelihood, the attack was aided directly or indirectly by Biden’s open borders and reorientation of counterterrorism policy and bureaucratic resources from DOJ, DHS, and the FBI from Islamic fundamentalism to other purported threats.
The ongoing war in Ukraine, the consequences of the horrific attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria all reveal that we are living at a time of great unrest in world politics.
At the same time, the strength of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) threatens U.S. national security because it targets the American people and U.S. national security interests, which include Taiwan and the Republic of the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, and the other states bordering the South China Sea (SCS), as well as our other treaty ally, Japan, in the East China Sea.
As we have warned in these pages, the pace and scope of the PRC’s actions must be described as hyper-aggressive. Each week there is new evidence of Beijing’s hyper-aggression, and this week was no exception. In late December, PRC air and naval forces from the Southern Theater Command staged “combat readiness patrols” around the disputed Scarborough Shoal, 118 miles from Luzon and thus well within the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). These actions were not the PRC’s only display of military might in the SCS in 2024. In a worrying development, the PRC has employed its constructed military bases on Subi, Mischief Reef, and Fiery Cross Reefs to deploy forces within the EEZ of the Philippines. A PRC submarine drone was found in Masbate, well within the Philippine archipelago, and an indication that at least one PRC submarine is operating nearby. It would not be a surprise if PRC submarines were regularly operating within the territorial waters of the Philippines, violating its sovereignty, on Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions and preparing for war against the Philippines and the U.S.
Likewise, it was revealed this week that on December 22, three PLA Navy (PLAN) and three Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) warships conducted joint operations in and through the Miyako Strait (Kerama Gap) between Miyako and Okinawa—the gateway for the PRC to enter the western Pacific Ocean. This unprecedented demonstration of PRC maritime power was led by the 10,000-ton CCG Zhaotuo-class cutter “2901,” which is over twice the size of each of the PLAN’s three Type 054A/Jiangkai II-class frigates. The presence of this small armada of warships and cutters also demonstrated the PRC’s ability to conduct a maritime blockade. The size and capabilities of these CCG warships are formidable. They must be considered as military vessels in any consideration of the military balance between the PLAN and the U.S. Navy. When they are, the balance is even more of an imbalance in favor of the PLAN and against the U.S. Navy.
If these actions were not enough evidence, there was the much-publicized launching of the PLAN’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan. At over 40,000 tons, equipped with a double island and a longitudinal flight deck, the Sichuan is, according to PRC press, the “first of its kind in the world equipped with electromagnetic catapult and arresting technology, allowing it to launch manned and unmanned combat aircraft in addition to helicopters similar to an aircraft carrier.” This “light aircraft carrier” is also able to deliver an amphibious combat battalion and represents another tool in the PLA’s amphibious arsenal.
These events are alarming in themselves, but such coercive actions employed against the Philippines and Japan must not be viewed in isolation. They must be measured as progressive steps to evict U.S. power from the region while preparing the battlespace for aggression against allies like the Philippines and Japan, partners like Taiwan, and the U.S. itself. The PRC’s actions must not be seen in isolation but as a unified and coherent strategy, which is being realized day after day.
Once we understand that the PRC is a hyper-aggressive state that unceasingly employs coercion against the U.S., its allies, and partners—and, indeed, it even does so against its erstwhile allies like North Korea and Pakistan—the U.S., its allies, and partners are left with only two decisions: either respond defensively to this aggression or suffer the consequences that Beijing intends to mete out against its adversaries.
Moreover, it comes straight from the horse’s mouth. General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping’s New Year’s Eve address was openly pugnacious as well. Notably, it was a continuation evinced in his address from the previous year. In his address, he stated that the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. That no one can sever family bonds, and no one can stop China’s reunification.
So, not for the first time, what Xi did was, first, claim Taiwan; second, attempt to legitimate his aggression against it; and third, Xi warned the world that it will aggress against Taiwan—a question of when, not if.
Xi’s comments, year after year, are clear warnings of the aggression that is to come, building upon the increasingly coercive measures the PRC is employing against Taiwan on a weekly basis. The actions of the PRC in the South and East China Seas and the continued rapid militarization of its military might must be seen as part of the CCP’s hyper-aggression across many theaters in the Indo-Pacific, as well as an indicator of the power projection that Xi and the CCP seek to expand around the globe.
The U.S., its allies, and Taiwan must be especially vigilant at a time of increasingly open bellicosity from the PRC. The PRC’s aggression occurs daily, and so its certainty is established. It will escalate unless it is deterred. Biden chose not to meet the threat, and so he is leaving U.S. national security in a worse position than it was four years ago. It now falls upon the Trump administration to address squarely and with dispatch.
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James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer are authors of Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure. The views expressed are their own.
James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/05/prcs-hyper-aggression-foreshadows-conflict-with-taiwan-and-u-s/
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