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China-Taiwan War: US Accelerates Contingency Planning For A Possible PLA ‘Assault’ On Taiwan – Reports

The US has accelerated preparations for an action plan in the event of a Chinese “invasion” of Taiwan, with the main focus put on the island’s cutting-edge chip industry, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources.

The contingency planning has intensified after the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the report said.

According to sources familiar with the discussions in the Biden administration, the question that worries officials in the US and Taiwan is the fate of the island’s flagship semiconductor industry.

All scenarios place increased strategic importance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), and under the worst-case scenario, the US will consider evacuating the company’s highly-skilled engineers, the sources said.

The US National Security Council reportedly estimates that the loss of TSMC could devastate the global economy by more than $1 trillion, roughly twice the value of the entire semiconductor industry’s annual global sales.

In August, Biden issued an executive order to implement the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which includes more than $52 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor manufacturers in an effort to counter China’s growing technological clout.

In September, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that Taiwan is the sole source of advanced semiconductor microchips, which poses a risk to US national security.

China Is Catching Up!

Western experts and commentators have been drawing parallels between the militaries of China and Russia for a while, a trend exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and an exponential rise in Chinese belligerence against Taiwan.

A new study from the US National Defense University contends that China’s military leaders may have a shortcoming in common with their Russian counterparts in Ukraine that could limit their capacity to fight a conflict of a similar nature. The research comes against a meeting between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

Since the last meeting between the two heads of state, their respective military positions have drastically changed. While China has projected its power in a mammoth way by surrounding Taiwan after Nancy Pelosi’s visit, Russian troops have suffered setbacks recently due to a massive Ukrainian counter-assault.

The report states that China’s People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) lack of cross-training is a potential weakness, as has been seen among the Russian troops, CNN reported. China has vowed to reunite Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, with force if necessary.




Vladimir_Putin_and_Xi_Jinping
File Image: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping

The massive drills conducted by China, stimulating an attack on Taiwan and blocking external assistance, have aggravated fears of an impending invasion. This becomes even more of a concern for the United States military as Joseph Biden announced in May that his country would intervene in case of an invasion.

The report examined the backgrounds of more than 300 of the PLA’s top officers from its five services in the six years before 2021. It concluded that leaders in each service were unlikely to have prior operational experience in any branch other than the one they started their careers in.

According to the report, PLA troops rarely have to leave their respective silos, contrasting sharply with the US military, where cross-training has been mandated by law since 1986.




Camouflaged PLA soldiers during a tactical training course on February 9, 2022.

The report, which runs into 73 pages goes on to say that this “rigidity… could reduce China’s effectiveness in future conflicts,” suggesting that PLA soldiers would have similar difficulties as their Russian counterparts in Ukraine, “where the overall cohesion of forces was low,” particularly in situations demanding high levels of joint-service operations.

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